LIBRARY'OF CONGRESS. 



I UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. | 



A 



COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE 



DELIVERED ON THE 



OCCASION OF CELEBRATING THE COMPLE- 
TION OF THE TOWER AND SPIRE OF 
THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY 
TRINITY, 



BROOKLYN, L. L 



December 19, 1867. 



BY THE 

REV. T. STAFFORD DROWNE, D. D. 

RECTOR OF ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, 




NEW YORK: 

PUBLISHED BY HURD AND HOUGHTON, 

459 Broome Street. 
1868. 







-6* 



RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: 
PRINTED BY H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY. 



INTRODUCTORY ACCOUNT OF THE 
SERVICES. 



Ox the morning of the commemorative services, the church 
was tastefully decorated, and the atmosphere of a great jubilee 
pervaded every part. The frontals of the altar, desk, and lec- 
tern were of white satin worked in gold and pearls. In the cen- 
tre of the reredos was suspended an elaborately wrought banner 
in blue and gold, bearing the inscription, " In hoc signo vinces." 
Upon the altar stood a floriated gilt cross, on which rested a 
beautiful wreath of flowers, with vases of flowers on either side. 

At the appointed hour the clergy entered, and took their places 
in the chancel, — the Rt. Rev. Dr. Clarkson, Bishop of Nebraska, 
the Rev. Drs. Littlejohn, Diller, Van Kleeck, Drowne, Hoffman, 
Greenleaf, D. V. M. Johnson, Haskins, and Burgess ; and the 
Rev. Messrs. Paddock, Jessup, Webbe, Adams, Homer, S. Davis, 
Harlow, Mansfield, Barnes, Spafard, Tripp, Thomson, Maybin, 
Cooper, Battershall, Punnett, Grannis, Root, Newton, and others. 
Among the congregation were the Rev. Messrs. Remington, 
Guion, and McCoy of New Orleans. At the request of the 
Bishop of New York, Bishop Clarkson presided. Morning 
Prayer was said by the Rev. Messrs. Paddock, Jessup, and Mans- 
field, and the Rev. Drs. Johnson and Van Kleeck. The ante- 
communion was said by the Bishop, the Rector reading the 
Epistle. The Anthem for the day was then sung, consisting of 
the words from the 8th Psalm, " O Lord, our Governor j how ex- 
cellent is thy name in all the world ! " 

Bishop Clarkson stated that he knew he expressed the sincere 
regret of all, that Bishop Potter could not be present. A note 



4 Introductory Accoitnt of the Services. 



from him, in reply to an invitation to preside at these ser^dces, had 
been received, and would be read by the venerable Dr. Diller, 
of St. Luke's. It was as follows : — 

New York, 38 East Twent}^-Second St.,} 
Dece77iber 17, 1867. i" 

My Dear Dr. Littlejohn, — 

I beg to tender to you, and through you, to your vestr}^ and to 
the good people of your congregation, my most hearty congratu- 
lations that you have been enabled to accomplish your great work 
of completing your noble church edifice ; and that you are per- 
mitted to appoint a day for the public and devout celebration of 
this important and joyful event in your parochial histor}-. I 
sympathize with your grateful emotions, and I feel it to be for 
myself an occasion of thankfulness to God that He hath made 
your people so rich in good works, and hath so graciously crowned 
your efforts with success. 

The aggregate of the offerings made in your parish during the 
past seven years (over $255,000, I understand,) is, in view of all 
the circumstances, something quite wonderful, and honorable 
alike to the rector, the vestry, and the congregation. It much 
more than realizes the high anticipations with which I so warmly 
welcomed you into this diocese. 

Most gladly would I be with you and your people on Thurs- 
day ; but before your note reached me, I had become engaged to 
consecrate, on that day, the new St. George's of this city. My 
heart will be with you. I send to you and your people and to 
my beloved brethren of the clerg}^ my fervent blessing, praying 
that Heavenly Grace may descend upon you all, filling you with 
joy and peace, and making you perfect in ever}^ good word and 
work. 

Your affectionate brother, 

HORATIO POTTER, 

Bishop of New York. 

The Rev. Dr. Drowne, Rector of St. Paul's, and formerly As- 
sistant Minister in this parish for many years, then delivered a 



Introductory Account of the Services. 



5 



commemorative discourse. In the communion office, the Bishop, 
as celebrant, was assisted by the Rev. Drs. Littlejohn, Hoffman, 
Burgess, and Greenleaf, the Rev. Dr. Haskins saying the post 
communion, and several others of the clergy bearing part in the 
distribution of the elements. The offertory was devoted to mis- 
sionary work in the city. 

After the Blessing of Peace, the clergy met in the chapel. 
Bishop Clarkson presiding, and the Rev. Mr. Webbe, of St. 
Michael's, acting as secretary. Cordial and pertinent remarks 
of sympathy and congratulation were made by the Rev. Dr. Van 
Kleeck, Rev. Mr. Jessup, and Rev. Dr. Hoffinan, touching the 
great success which had crowned the labors of the rector, vestry, 
and people of Holy Trinity ; to which the Rev. Dr. Littlejohn 
briefly and feelingly responded. The following resolutions, 
moved by the Rev. Dr. Van Kleeck, and seconded by the Rev. 
Dr. Hoffman, were unanimously adopted : — 

Resolved, That the warm and hearty congratulations of the 
clergy here assembled be tendered to the rector, wardens, vestry- 
men, and congregation of the Church of the Holy Trinity, in the 
city of Brooklyn, Long Island, on the successful consummation 
of their hopes long deferred, in the completion of their beautiful 
temple, in which God has prospered and crowned their patient 
faith, their earnest zeal, their united prayers, and their liberal 
contributions. 

Resolved, That the thanks of the clergy assembled be given to 
the Rev. T. S. Drowne, D. D., for his highly interesting discourse 
delivered this morning, and their unanimous desire expressed for 
its publication, believing that it will be permanently valuable for 
its scholarly eloquence, for its historic interest, and for the taste, 
delicacy, and justice with which it has commemorated the zeal- 
ous and successful efforts both of the living and the dead. 

The clergy and other invited guests then repaired to the resi- 
dence of Mr. Joseph W. Greene, a zealous vestryman of the 
church, where a bountiful collation was elegantly served. 

In the evening the clergy again assembled at the rectory, 
where they were joined by the Rev. Dr. Vinton of Trinity 
Church, New York, the Rev. Mr. Peck, and others who had been 



6 



hiiroductory Accotmt of the Services, 



unable to be present in the morning, and attended in a body the 
Choral Festival which concluded the commemorative serv^ices. 
The Rector, by way of preface to the festival, spoke in substance 
as follows : — 

" This morning a large assembly was gathered here to cele- 
brate the completion of this edifice. Clergy and people united 
in public and devout acts of praise and thanksgiving, and the 
reading of appropriate Scriptures, in testimony to words of 
appropriate greeting from our Bishop, and from the preacher of 
the day, a much-loved brother of this city, and the reverent com- 
memoration of the sacrifice and death of Him, without whom 
there had been no churches for the service and glory of God, 
and no hope for the world. 

" To-night we are here to continue the formal and public cele- 
bration of the same auspicious event. We shall do this in a way 
less impressive and significant, but more demonstrative and jubi- 
lant than that of the morning. Our joy is the same, and the 
source of it the same, but it will have another channel of utter- 
ance. It has come forth from the inner court and majestic cere- 
monial of worship ; it has risen from its prostration before the 
throne of the King of Glory, and would now speak of God's 
goodness to men through music — the only universal language 
of the human heart. 

" Whatever taste, talent, skill, or other fruit of study and 
genius may be exhibited here to-night, I desire to have it all 
regarded as so much laid upon the altar of thanksgiving, as only 
another kind of devout remembrance of the happy event of the 
hour. And, viewed in this aspect, it would be unbecoming in 
us to offer anything that is not as perfect as we can make it. 

" It is a striking and graceful triumph of Christian architecture 
that we celebrate ; and is it not well that we call upon a sister 
art that draws its inspiration from the same sublime source, to 
declare its praise ? Let those silent shapes of stone that have 
grown under the patient hand of labor into yonder shaft of 
beauty find a tongue in the banded notes of organ, pipe, and in- 
strumental chord and human voice, whose harmonies are but the 
faint echoes of the infinite harmony, even as the forms of archi- 



Introductory Account of the Services, 



7 



tecture are but the imperfect copies of ideas that have dwelt from 
eternit}^ in the mind of the Supreme Master Builder of the worlds, 
and of the infinite temple not made with hands eternal in the 
heavens." 

The music consisted of many exquisite gems of sacred min- 
strelsy, and was admirably rendered both by voice and instru- 
ment, under the able direction of the organist of the church, Mr. 
George W. Warren. The concluding piece was a grand Te Deuni^ 
sung by his large and well-trained choir of thirt}'-six voices, 
during which the whole congregation rose and stood, thus nobly 
closing the services of the day. 



COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. 



Who art thou, O great mountain ? 
Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain : 
And he shall bring forth the headstone thereof 
With shoutings, crying, Grace ! grace unto it ! 

Zechar'iah iv. 7. 

The commencement, progress, and completion of 
the second temple mark one of the most interesting 
epochs in Jewish history. 

The long years of mournful captivity in a strange 
land were ended, and the day of hope and gladness 
had dawned. The liberated exile could now take his 
harp from the willows where it had hung silent so 
long, and string it anew in Zion to his ancient songs. 
Soon after the fall of the Chaldsean empire before the 
armies of Persia, the victorious monarch issued a 
proclamation which quickly traversed the length and 
breadth of the land, not only terminating the inglo- 
rious servitude of the Hebrews, but providing for 
their speedy return to Palestine. " Then rose up," as 
the prophet Ezra tells us, " the chief of the fathers of 
Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, 
with all them whose spirit God had raised, to go up 
to build the House of the Lord which is in Jerusa- 



lo Commemorative Discourse, 

lem." Gladly did they accept the gracious permis- 
sion of Cyrus to restore their temple and their city, 
his bountiful provision for the necessities of their 
homeward journey, the large pledges of gold and 
silver which he made them from the royal revenues 
for their sacred edifice, and, above all, those holy and 
precious vessels of the old temple which Nebuchad- 
nezzar had carried away, among the rich spoils of 
Jerusalem, to adorn the Temple of Bel and the tables 
of the Babylonian court. 

How often, and how vividly, as they marched 
along, must the thought of that grand old fane, 
which for its exceeding splendor was called " the 
joy of the whole earth," have rushed into their minds, 
with its sacred courts thronged with worshipers, 
with its golden altar and ark of the covenant, its 
officiating priests and inspiring ritual, its daily sacri- 
fices and offerings, and the cloud of the Divine Pres- 
ence suspended aloft, the abiding pledge of the ac- 
ceptance of their services. How often, and how 
keenly, must the memories of lost privileges, of the 
rebellions and iniquities that had brought their accu- 
mulated sufferings upon them, of the final and com- 
plete overthrow of all they held most dear which 
they had wantonly provoked, have smote their con- 
sciences, and awakened intense yearnings for their 
restoration to the Divine favor, for the setting up 
again of the prostrate altars, and the renewal of their 
holy worship. A people stirred by a spirit like this, 
would not waste a moment in pondering upon the 
possible obstacles or dangers before them. If their 



Commemorative Discourse, 



II 



country were desolate, would she not soon rejoice 
again on their glad return? If their beautiful city- 
had become a heap of shapeless ruins, would they not 
soon see her massive walls and stately towers rising 
again under their willing hands ? If the temple 
upon which Solomon had lavished such an incalcula- 
ble amount of labor and treasure had been profaned 
and dismantled and razed to the ground, might they 
not hope, with the blessing of Jehovah, to see it once 
more rebuilt and made His accepted dwelling-place ? 

On reaching their native land, after offering sacri- 
fices of praise for their safe and prosperous journey, 
they immediately began their arrangements for the 
sacred undertaking. They did not wait until they 
had erected their own houses, and established them- 
selves comfortably, but, as God's House was upper- 
most in their thoughts, first applied their means and 
time and toil to this. Preparations were made on a 
magnificent scale ; the services of multitudes of artif- 
icers were engaged from Tyre, and materials gathered 
from far and near in large profusion for the space of a 
year. At length, when all was in readiness, the foun- 
dation was laid with great solemnity, the priests as- 
sisting in their sacred vestments, and the Levites with 
instruments of music, singing in turns and praising 
the Lord, " because He is good, for His mercy en- 
dureth forever toward Israel." The ceremonial, to 
many who took part in it, was inexpressibly affecting. 
Ezra records that while " the people shouted with a 
great shout," — the younger among them, full of holy 
enthusiasm, " shouting aloud for joy," — yet the older, 



12 



Commemorative Discourse, 



less hopeful, and remembering the glory of the build- 
ing which had once stood upon that sacred spot, and 
the impossibility of attaining to its marvelous beauty 
and perfection, " wept with a loud voice : so that the 
people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy 
from the noise of the weeping." 

But these were only the sad memories of the past 
which depressed them for the moment. Old and 
young bent to the task with their whole heart and 
soul, and for two years they continued to labor with- 
out intermission, suffering no other considerations to 
interrupt the holy work. But at length difficulties 
confronted them : what great undertaking was ever 
yet begun or accomplished but in the face of difficul- 
ties % Numerous adversaries were around them who 
watched their movements with jealousy and malig- 
nant suspicion; especially the Samaritans, an idola- 
trous and treacherous people, who corrupted with 
bribes the satraps and overseers of the public works, 
and sent intriguing emissaries to the Persian court, 
thus early beginning that deadly feud which continued 
as long as the Israelites had a national existence. 
Amidst constant persecutions and strifes, however, for 
a while the work went on. With one hand they 
wrought, and in the other held a weapon. The 
prophecy of Daniel was literally fulfilled, that the 
building of the temple and the restoration of Jerusa- 
lem should be "in troublous times." In the tenth 
year, King Cyrus died, and still darker days and 
deeper depression followed. Cambyses, his successor, 
at the instigation of the Samaritans and other enemies 



Commemorative Discourse. 



13 



of the Jews, issued an interdict which put a stop to 
further progress with the temple. Eight years after, 
this godless monarch and the usurping Magian both 
are dead, and Darius has succeeded to the throne of 
Persia ; but although he is the friend of the Israelite, 
and has revoked the royal interdict, and promulgated 
anew the decree of Cyrus, — such is the frailty of our 
fallen nature, — the people have become so deeply 
absorbed in providing themselves with comfortable 
homes, and in adorning them, that their interest in the 
House of the Lord has greatly abated. In plausible 
self-justification of their neglect they recall the oppo- 
sition of their enemies, and notwithstanding the king's 
permission, declare that the proper time has not yet 
come, and that they have no heart to go back to their 
pious labors. 

To punish them for this impiety and inertness, and 
to rouse them to renewed exertion, God visited them 
with drought and sterility, and sent Haggai with 
words of stern reproof: — 

" Is it time for you, O ye ! 
To dwell in your ceiled houses, and this House lie waste ? 

Thus saith the Lord of hosts ; 
Consider your ways. 

Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, 

And build the House; and I will take pleasure in it, 

And I will be glorified, saith the Lord. 

Ye run every man unto his own house. 
Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, 
And the earth is stayed from her fruit." 

And as they felt the rebuke, and left toiling upon 
their own dwellings, and resumed their sacred em- 
ployment, he encouraged them with the joyous assur- 



14 



Commemorative Discourse, 



ance that although their building, in its material 
endowments, its architectural beauty, and its sacred 
relics, might be immeasurably inferior to Solomon's 
temple, yet it would far surpass it in real greatness 
and glory, for it would be the shrine to which the 
long-expected Messiah, " the Desire of all nations," 
should come. A few months later, moved by " the 
Angel of the Lord," the prophet Zechariah also greets 
them with words of good cheer : — 

" Not by might, nor by power, 

But by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. 
Who art thou, O great mountain ? 
Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain : 
And he shall bring forth the headstone thereof 
With shoutings, crying, Grace ! grace unto it ! '* 

The Spirit of God was their helper, before whose 
resistless energy difficulties apparently insurmountable 
were to vanish, and a triumphant result to ensue. 
With such encouragement to urge on both their 
leader and themselves, the work rapidly progressed. 
Zealously and unweariedly they wrought as at the 
first ; so tier rose above tier, cloister was added to 
cloister, court after court was finished, until at the end 
of six and thirty years, by their unremitting toil and 
perseverance, in spite of enemies without and faint 
hearts within, their labors were concluded. The 
workmen disappeared, the noise of axes and ham- 
mers was heard no more, and the temple stood forth 
complete, with its lofty colonnade and glittering 
dome, high upon Mount Moriah. 

And now has dawned the great and joyful day of 
Dedication. Behold the vast, solemn procession ad- 



Commemorative Discourse, 



15 



vancing towards the hallowed spot, — the prophets, 
priests, and rulers, the soldiers, men, women, and chil- 
dren, — such a procession as has never been mar- 
shalled in the streets of Jerusalem since the days of 
Solomon. And as they pause, while enemies are 
hovering on the distant hills, and friends are exulting 
and cheering on every side, — there, in the presence 
of an assembled nation, amid the flames of unstinted 
sacrifices, and the incense of countless censers rolling 
up into the clear blue of an Eastern sky, the headstone 
is brought forth ; and the patriot chief, with a grate- 
ful heart, deposits it in its appointed place, amid the 
united acclamations of " Grace ! grace unto it ! " 
from the rejoicing multitude. And then with the 
imposing ceremonies of the older days, the attendant 
priests, habited in their white robes as before, and the 
musicians and singers with their trumpets and cym- 
bals, chanting the praises of Jehovah, and offering 
Him the sacrifices of thanksgiving, the second temple 
is consecrated and set apart for holy uses. A happy 
day indeed must that have been for Israel ; a festival 
to be observed by them with undiminished gladness 
through the passing ages. 

Something analogous to this, in its difficulties and 
its triumphs, in its days of long suspension and its 
renewed progress towards completion, has been the 
erection of this House of God. Something analo- 
gous to this, in the firm determination that God 
should have a habitation worthy of His name and 
worship, has characterized your pious zeal; and the 
joy which animated His servants of old may well fill 



1 6 Commemorative Discourse. 



your hearts to overflowing, as the headstone has now 
been laid in its place, and you meet in thankful com- 
memoration to-day. 

In recalling some particulars of the origin and early 
history of this sacred edifice, which may not be inap- 
propriate or without interest on an occasion like this, 
we are carried back near a quarter of a century, — not 
a long period except in a city like this of many and 
rapid changes, — when Brooklyn covered a compar- 
atively limited area^ and numbered scarcely a sixth 
part of its present population.* The only churches 
of our communion here, long in existence, were St. 
Ann's and St. John's, the former tracing its origin 
back to 1778, and the latter to 1826. The congrega- 
tion of Christ Church had just completed their pres- 
ent edifice, while Emmanuel Church in Sidney Place, 
which afterwards became Grace, and Calvary Church 
in Pearl Street, now extinct, had been but newly or- 
ganized. St. Luke's, Bedford, and St. Mary's near 
the Wallabout, were at that time infant parishes quite 
out of the city, with small villages growing up around 
them, and long intervals of country stretching be- 
tween. f The Heights were chiefly open fields with 

* The rapid increase will be seen from the following statistics : there 
were 

In 1800, 2,378 inhabitants. In 1840, 42,622 inhabitants. 



1 5 10, 4,402 
1820, 7,175 
1825, 10,791 
1830, 15,394 
1835, 27,854 



1845, 72,769 
1850^ i3^?357 
1855, 205,250 
i860, 266,661 
1865, 296,378 



f See Note I. — Histoiy of the Early Churches of Brooklyn, with an 
Account of the Planting of the Church on Long Island. 



Commemorative Discourse, 17 



here and there a house or portion of a block. At 
this period there were a few Churchmen, who foresee- 
ing the rapid growth of the city and the increasing 
need of church accommodation, concluded there 
should be a larger and more imposing edifice than 
had yet been erected, in some central location. Trin- 
ity Church was then rising in New York, the first 
attempt at introducing any decided ecclesiastical style, 
or correctness in the treatment of it, and was educat- 
ing the popular taste. A beginning here was in- 
augurated. Lots were generously offered for a site 
on the corner of Henry and Montague Streets by the 
heirs of the Pierrepont Estate, who early took a warm 
interest in all local Church enterprises ; and a subscrip- 
tion was opened, and reached $25,000. Some of the 
subscribers now favored erecting a plain edifice at a 
moderate cost ; others, having more enlarged plans in 
view, strongly dissented ; and the different opinions 
being apparently irreconcilable, the subscriptions were 
cancelled, and the project in that form abandoned. 

A short time afterward, one who had borne a promi- 
nent part in that movement, and from his intelligent in- 
terest in Brooklyn affairs, was already regarded as a pub- 
lic benefactor, Edgar J. Bartow, secured the site upon 
which we now are, and advertised that a chapel would 
ere long be ready here for occupancy, and Divine ser- 
vices commenced. With a wise foresight and a mu- 
nificent liberality, he determined upon erecting a com- 
modious and beautiful pile of buildings, which might 
anticipate the wants of a growing population for years 

to come, and be a credit and a blessing to the commu- 
3 



i8 



Commemorative Discourse, 



nity in which they should stand. It was with no feel- 
ings of ostentation or craving for notoriety, but with 
entirely unselfish motives, and from an humble desire 
to do all he could in his Master's service, that he de- 
termined upon undertaking the work unaided and 
alone. For a time every plan succeeded. But after- 
ward, when business misfortunes and financial embar- 
rassments overtook him, the burden was found greater 
than he could bear. Yet it was in his heart to have 
made this a free gift to you and your posterity ; for 
years he labored most earnestly, though in vain, to 
effect it, and to the last never regretted having made 
the attempt.* 

The preparation of designs for a church, chapel, 
and rectory were intrusted to Minard Lafever, whose 
ability and taste were already distinguished. Prepar- 
atory to engaging in this edifice, he studied carefully 
the architectural remains of Normandy, and some of 
the best mediaeval structures of England. The styles 
which he chose to combine are those known as the 
Flamboyant, and Third or Decorated English, which 
admit of pleasing variety in composition, elaborate 
ornament, and flowing tracery of unsurpassed rich- 
ness. The plans improved beneath his hands, assum- 
ing fairer proportions and greater elegance, so that the 
first draughts would hardly suggest to one who should 
see them now the symmetrical and imposing structure 
which his maturer study and judgment approved. 
Those who have visited Cambridge, England, and be- 
held the panelled walls and canopied niches of King's 

* See Note II., Sketch of the Life of Edgar J. Bartow. 



Commemorative Discourse. 



19 



College Chapel, or have paused among the sacred 
structures of Rouen, and paced the aisles of the Ca- 
thedral, or of St. Ouen and St. Maclou, and admired 
their groined vaultings and sculptured pinnacles and 
pictured windows, will have seen some of the germs 
of thoughts embodied here, some of that rich vocab- 
ulary of carved wood and stone which are here em- 
ployed in new combinations and to express new 
beauties. Of nearly forty churches which Mr. La- 
fever built during the last twenty years of his life, 
many of them structures of unusual and lasting merit, 
none were so costly, so ornate, so magnificent as this ; 
none which he himself continued to regard with more 
undisguised satisfaction. Even a few hours before his 
death, when most things earthly had faded from his 
vision, his memory dwelt with clinging interest and 
affection to these holy courts, which he had conscien- 
tiously tried to make the fitting house of God and the 
gate of heaven.* 

Of the construction, its proportions and details, its 
rich adornment and symbolic teachings, notice is un- 
necessary.f The building is before us. The founda- 
tions, begun in the month of August, 1844, were laid 
in the most secure and substantial manner, — those 
especially of the tower having been carried deep 
below the surface upon a bed naturally admirably 
fitted, with inverted lateral and transverse arches laid 
upon concrete, producing a well-compacted mass, 

* See Note III., Sketch of the Life of Minard Lafever. 
+ See Note IV., Architectural Description of the Church, Chapel, and 
Rectory. 



20 



Commemorative Discourse. 



solid as the enduring rock, which can never yield or 
swerve beneath the superincumbent weight. The 
superstructure advanced steadily, and in less than 
three years was completed. The Chapel was opened 
for public services on Trinity Sunday, the seventh of 
June, 1846; and the Church on the Third Sunday 
after Easter, the twenty- fifth of April, 1847,* under 
the rectorship of the Rev. Dr. William H. Lewis, 
who since 1840 had been in charge of Calvary 
Church. Most of his parishioners followed him 
hither; and though some augured doubtfully of his 
success in so large a structure with a sparse popula- 
tion around, deeming the whole enterprise a hazard- 
ous experiment, yet as time went on the church pros- 
pered, increasing in numbers and in usefulness, and 
ere long took a prominent place among the larger 
parishes of our country. On the twenty-seventh of 
November, 1851, it was duly organized by the elec- 
tion of church-wardens and vestrymen,f and admitted 
into union with Convention on the thirtieth of Sep- 
tember, 1852. With a united and working people, 
the charities of the congregation for the time were 
large. A free mission church, St. Mark's, was estab- 
lished in Fleet Street,^ a missionary was sustained in 

* See Note V., The Opening Services at the Church of the Holy 
Trinity. 

+ The Hon. Conklin Brush, and the Hon. Nathan B. Morse, were 
elected wardens; and Edgar J. Bartow, George L. Willard, George B. 
Grinnell, James L. Adams, William R. Phelps, Moses Cook, Dan Mar- 
vin, and Augustus D. Fenton, vestrymen. 

+ The corner-stone of this edifice was laid on the Festival of St. John 
the Baptist, the twenty-fourth of June, 1850, by the Rt. Rev W. R, 



Commemorative Discourse, 



21 



China,* and several churches liberally aided both here 
and in the West.f Some who are present to-day- 
will still vividly recall how regularly and faithfully 
Dr. Lewis discharged the duties of his responsible 
office, how practical and forcible were his public 
teachings and counsels, how earnest and endearing 
his Christian piety, and his pastoral solicitude and 
affection, j; 

But I may not linger on those smoothly rolling 
years. In the spring of 1856 came dark and threat- 
ening days when this edifice was in imminent danger 
of passing out of the hands of its occupants. The 
incumbrances which the business exigencies of its 
founder had led him to place upon the church, and 
which he had fondly hoped were only temporary, 
were at length found beyond his power to remove. 

Whittingham, D. D., of Maryland. The dimensions of the building were 
eighty feet by forty-five, and the cost with the land was over ^6,000. On 
the twenty-ninth of September, 1850, the first service was held in St. 
Mark's, prayers being read by the Rev. Mr. Dennison and the Rev. Dr. 
Totten, and the sermon preached by the Rev. Dr. Lewis. The Rev. 
Francis Peck was called to the rectorship, and entered upon his duties on 
the following Sunday, the sixth of October. 

* Miss Caroline P. Tenney, afterwards the wife of the Rev. Cleveland 
Keith, sailed for China on the sixteenth of March, 1850, and arrived at 
Shanghai in August, where she was successfully engaged for many years 
in teaching and in translating educational and religious books into the 
Chinese language. A memoir of her has been published, edited by her 
brother, William C. Tenney. 

t Among these may be mentioned the Church of the Redeemer, Brook- 
lyn, then under the charge of the Rev. David P. Sanford, and Trinity- 
Church, Aurora, Illinois, of which the Rev. Julius H. Waterbury was 
Rector. 

+ See Note VI., Sketch of the Life of the Rev. William H. Lewis, 
D. D. 



22 



Commemorative Discourse. 



One of the mortgages was foreclosed, and the prop- 
erty advertised for sale at public auction on April the 
seventh. In the call issued for a meeting of the 
members of the parish in this place on the twenty- 
eighth of March, only a few days previous to the 
sale, it was announced that " the rector, wardens, and 
vestrymen, in making this call, can only say here that 
the questions whether we can much longer occupy 
our present place of worship, whether the people 
shall be dispersed in a few weeks to find themselves a 
Church home where they may, whether the Parish 
of the Holy Trinity shall become extinct, whether 
its present rector js to be totally severed from his 
charge and compelled to seek a field of labor else- 
where, and whether Romanists or Churchmen shall 
hereafter assemble in our beautiful House of God ; — 
questions of vital importance to us individually, and 
to Christ's cause everywhere, seem to be all depend- 
ing, under God, on the response that is made to this 
invitation." 

I well remember with what mingled hopes and 
forebodings one and another came here on that event- 
ful Friday evening, and what a thick gloom had set- 
tled down upon almost every face. The amount re- 
quired to effect a purchase, — about 1 100,000, — and 
from a congregation in which there was then com- 
paratively little wealth, seemed too large to be com- 
passed. But the more hopeful cheered the despond- 
ing; judicious plans were set on foot, and advocated 
by those in management ; all were roused to the 
necessities of the emergency, and at length rallied 



Commemorative Discourse. 



23 



unitedly in the effort. About $30,000 were raised, 
the church was secured, the mortgage provided for, 
the impending sale prevented, and the title of the 
church property, on the twenty-seventh of March, 
1856, became permanently vested in the congregation. 
On the twenty-third day of the following September, 
it was solemnly consecrated, amid a vast concourse of 
the clergy and laity, by the present Bishop of New 
York.* But a heavy load of debt, about $65,000, 
still incumbered the parish, the interest of which crip- 
pled its resources, and to reduce it within manageable 
and safe bounds was a problem difficult of solution. 
During the following three years the struggle con- 
tinued with little or no change. Discouraged after 
several ineffectual efforts to lighten the burden, Dr. 
Lewis withdrew from his official connection with the 
parish on the sixth of February, i860, hoping that 
what he had laboriously begun and partially accom- 
plished, might by another be more successfully com- 
pleted. 

We turn over to a brighter page of your paro- 
chial annals. The details of the subsequent years 
are too recent and familiar, however, to need any 
lengthened recital. Your beloved rector,f entering 
upon his charge at Easter in i860, addressed him- 
self with fortitude and perseverance to his laborious, 
and it may have been at times, discouraging task. At 
his suggestion, the debt was reduced $10,000, at the 

* See Note VII., Consecration of the Church of the Holy Trinity. 
+ See Note VIII., Sketch of the Life of the Eev. A. N. Littlejohn, 
D. D. 



24 



Commemorative Discourse. 



time he assumed the rectorate. In January, 1863, 
the further sum of $20,000 was laid upon the altar 
for the same purpose. Meantime the income of the 
church had more than doubled, thus not only amply 
providing for the current expenses, but establishing a 
sinking fund which has already greatly diminished, 
and will in a few years, without further special exer- 
tion, extinguish the balance due on the original pur- 
chase. The mountains of difficulty which had stood 
so long and appeared so formidable were thus by your 
united efforts, under your pastor's efficient and judi- 
cious leadership, at length reduced to a plain. The 
progress of the church, once relieved of its disheart- 
ening incumbrances, in all its liberal and comprehen- 
sive plans; the success with which, under the Divine 
blessing, its spiritual and temporal interests have been 
administered ; the well-spring of charities which it 
has proved at home and abroad, in the east and the 
west, have been matters of rejoicing to us all, and of 
praise to Him who alone giveth us the will and the 
ability to do Him service.* 

The past season has witnessed the crowning effort 
of pastor and people in the completion of this sanc- 

* This parish has built a church edifice named after itself, the Church of 
the Holy Trinity, at Bellevue, Nebraska, and has also established a Free 
Chapel on Fulton Avenue, near Schenectady, in the eastern part of Brook- 
lyn. In the autumn, the Holy Trinity Classical and Commercial School 
for Boys was inaugurated, of which the Rev. Dr. Littlejohn is Rector, the 
Rev. B. B. Newton, Chaplain and Instructor in Christian Ethics, Mr. 
John A. Graves, Head Master, Mr. George W. Warren, Instructor in 
Music, and Mr. W. L. Northam, Instructor in Elocution. It is already 
in a flourishing condition, and promises to become an important and influ- 
ential Church institution. 



Commemorative Discourse, 



25 



tuary, which you may well dwell upon to-day with 
especial thankfulness and joy. For twenty years the 
edifice had stood unfinished. And though, as during 
the building of the temple by Zerubbabel, there may 
have been Tobiahs and Sanballats to discourage its 
completion ; though to many it may have seemed too 
hazardous an undertaking in such " troublous times," 
yet the work has gone on, the tower and spire have 
risen, the building is at length finished. 

With a heart overflowing with grateful emotions, 
and with the cordial concurrence of my brethren of 
the clergy, who I know share your joy in the success- 
ful accomplishment of this noble work, I would most 
warmly congratulate the Rector, the Wardens, and 
Vestrymen, and this large and generous-hearted con- 
gregation, upon an event of such high moment in the 
history of your parish, and so conducive to the best 
interests of the church in this city. You have reared 
a spire of graceful and imposing proportions, an en- 
during credit to the genius of him who designed it, 
and to the skill of those who constructed it, to a 
height which has never yet been exceeded in our 
community or in our country. You have lifted the 
Cross into loftier prominence than any other object 
has been raised by human hands on this whole conti- 
nent. Fitting is it that the sacred symbol of our re- 
demption, the badge of our Christian discipleship, the 
pledge of our regenerated humanity, should stand 
thus distinguished above all human objects, all secular 
and earthly devices. May it for ages to come look 
down upon a Christian and a happy people, and be a 
4 



26 



Commemorative Discourse. 



constant monitor to the passing crowds, immersed in 
the turmoil of the busy thoroughfares below, of that 
better country and those enduring mansions to which 
it points. 

What a glorious object, amidst the dense and far- 
reaching habitations of our city, is a towering fane 
like this ! It is a constant assertion of the existence 
of a God, a visible testimony to the truth of Chris- 
tianity. It is a beacon and a breakwater against 
the floods of infidelity and ungodliness ever surging 
around us. It is a refuge and a resting-place where 
the Christian pilgrim, tired with the pressure of his 
earthly duties or his heavy sorrows, may step aside 
and calm the care-worn spirit, and in prayer and 
praise and holy meditation obtain comfort and 
strength for his onward journey. In this distracting 
rush of life, where men so often bury their souls 
in their little toils and drudgeries, there is need of 
pausing awhile, now and then, to think where we are, 
and whither we go. In the sanctuary, this horizon- 
spot where heaven and earth meet, isolated and sub- 
dued by the calm majesty and the ennobling associa- 
tions of the hallowed place, we can best raise the 
thoughts and aspirations above our grovelling call- 
ings, can best roll back the world, and be alone with 
God and our own soul. To each passer-by, a temple 
like this speaks of other duties and other cares beside 
those in which he may be engrossed. Even to the 
worldly, it presents an august appearance, and incul- 
cates influential lessons. It forces itself upon their 
admiration as the perfection of human wisdom. It 



Commemorative Discourse, 



27 



raises its fair towers and graceful pinnacles in their 
sight, and although they may esteem it the record of 
an old superstition, still they wonder at its marvelous 
beauty ; and as they pass on to their daily avocations, 
pause to lift up one more look to its glorious but 
unworldlike form. 

Is there a heart so cold or indifferent among us as 
to disparage the expenditure of labor and of treasure 
here incurred? Is there any one who asks with Ju- 
das, when he saw the alabaster box of precious spike- 
nard poured upon our Saviour's head, " For what 
purpose was this waste ? " Let him know that the 
very stones of the wall and the beams out of the 
timber proclaim God's glory, and that no tongue 
preaches more eloquently to the unbeliever, no voice 
more shames the lukewarm or more encourages the 
humble servant of God, than the example of men 
zealously affected in God's service, consecrating them- 
selves and their substance to His glory. No appeal 
more stimulates a waning charity or rebukes a dead- 
ening selfishness than the sight of a work like this, 
which by its beauty and stability proves that there are 
yet those among us who are willing to devote their 
best and costliest gifts to God's House rather than 
their own — who are desirous to honor Him rather 
than to glorify themselves. Is it not a spirit of nig- 
gardness and extreme presumption for men to build 
palaces for themselves, to spare no expense and no 
pains in obtaining the best of materials, to employ 
Italian marbles and rich fabrics and elaborate frescoes 
in interior decoration, to lavish large sums in furni- 



28 



Commemorative Discourse. 



ture and equipages, to deck out their bodies with 
costly raiment and jewels, in a word to omit nothing 
which may conduce to their comfort and luxury, and 
at the same time to think it proper and right to deny 
the House dedicated to God's glory all care and cost, 
and regard as quite thrown away all that is expended in 
its appropriate construction and tasteful adornment °? 

We admit that there are circumstances when the 
humble chapel, and even the lowly hovel, may be a 
fit place for Christian vv^orship ; but then of the hovels 
that surround it, it should be the best. The taber- 
nacle was but a tent, but then among the tents of 
wandering Israel it stood preeminent and attractive 
as was no other. ' And when they built the temple 
and enriched it with goodly stones and precious met- 
als, with the elaboration of carved ornaments and 
the beauty of textile fabrics, they were determined 
that " the palace " which, as David said, was " not for 
man, but for the Lord God," should not be inferior 
in splendor to the palace of their sovereign. The 
early Christians were actuated by a similar motive, 
which is seen in the very name they gave to their 
sanctuary, when they called it a Basilica, a Palace for 
the Great King. And St. Jerome tells us that their 
churches were beautified by golden roofs, and walls 
adorned with crust of marble; the pillars with their 
chapiters were of shining gold ; the gates were inlaid 
with ivory and silver, and their altars decorated with 
precious stones.* The same spirit was visible in the 

* Hieron. Lib. 2, in Zechar. viii. Non solum laquearia et tecta fulgentja 
auro, sed parietas diversi marmoris crustis vestiti. Id. Ep. 2, ad Nepo- 



Commemorative Discourse. 



29 



Middle Ages, when the grand cathedrals and elegant 
minsters arose in England and over Europe, those 
enduring marvels of Christian piety and art. And 
though it is true that Christ will come and visit His 
faithful people as well beneath the simple and unpre- 
tending roof as in the richest and noblest cathedral 
pile, yet it is as true that no building, make we it 
magnificent as we may, can be too worthy of Him in 
whose honor it is reared. And then we must remem- 
ber that our ideas of magnificence are only relative. 
Heaven alone is truly magnificent. When we shall 
be permitted to behold its gates of pearl, its walls of 
jasper, its streets of gold, and 

" The living Throne, the sapphire blaze, 
Where angels tremble, while they gaze," 

how insignificant will the most magnificent of earthly 
things then appear ! What is requisite is only that 
we should serve Him who gave us all things, and 
appointed us His stewards, with the best we have. 
Whatever is most beautiful in nature and most fin- 
ished in art, most lofty in conception and perfect in 
workmanship, finds a fitting place in His sanctuary, 
by Whom and for Whom everything exists. The 
creations of His hand, the stones of the quarry, the 
trees of the forest, the jewels in the rocks, the metals 

tian. Marmora nitent auro, spendent laquearia, gemmis altare distinguitur. 
Id. Ep. 30, Epitaph. Fabiolse, c. 4. Sonabant Psalmi, et aurata templo- 
rum tecta reboans in sublime quatiebat Alleluya. Id. Ep. 8, ad Demetriad. 
Virgin. Alii sedificent ecclesias ; vestiant parietas marmorum crustis ; 
columniarum moles advehant, earumque deaurent capita, pretiosum orna- 
tum non sententia ; ebore argentoque vaivas, et gemmis aurata distinguant 
altaria. 



30 



Commemorative Discourse, 



in the mine, and even the flowers of the field, can be 
here made instinct with new life, and utter forth His 
praise and glory. And there is not a pointing arch, 
there is not a storied window richly dight, a leaf- 
twined boss, a clustered column, a carved monogram, 
or a rich piece of needle-work, but may be made to 
tell of some Christian mystery or teach some Chris- 
tian lesson. And he whose thoughts are not pointed 
heavenward by the soaring spire, who listens not with 
pleasure to the melodious chime of bells or the full 
organ's pealing notes, whose heart is not warmed and 
cheered by the word of inspiration, whose spirit does 
not bow in the prayer and the chant, who feels no 
inward thrill of joy beneath the grandeur of the sol- 
emn arching vault, or the chancel's mellowed light, 
has learned little of Him who would be worshiped in 
the Beauty of Holiness. 

But it is not only thus that the sacred edifice fills 
the hearts of the faithful with holy associations and 
stirring remembrances. It is within its walls that the 
great gifts of grace have come down to us from the 
throne of God. It is here that we are made children 
of God by adoption, and heirs of eternal life ; here 
that we are confirmed with the illuminating and 
strengthening gifts of the Holy Ghost ; here that our 
Blessed Lord draws nigh and communes with our 
souls, feeding us with the bread of life, even with 
Himself Who is Life. However much may be said 
of the outward appearance and beauty of God's 
House and all its glorious privileges and usages, these, 
after all, are but the scaflfolding of the spiritual build- 



Commemorative Discourse. 



31 



ing. The house of God within, whose foundation and 
head-stone aUke is Christ, must be edified; the hidden 
temple of the heart must be adorned and clad in robes 
of sanctity, else all these external attractions of re- 
ligion and aids to devotion will profit us not. The 
greatest ornaments of a church are not gold and sil- 
ver, but living members of the mystical body of 
Christ. These are her loveliest and most priceless 
jewels. Her choicest treasure is the truth of the 
gospel, that sacred and precious deposit. Her pearl 
of great price is Christ, held forth by the preaching of 
her ministers and the sacraments of grace, and worn 
nearest to the hearts of her faithful children. 

The house that is made with hands cannot endure 
forever ! It is at best but a figure of the true. Like 
all fabrics of perishable material and of human work- 
manship, however costly and beautiful, it must fall ! 
Like the glorious structures of Solomon and Zerub- 
babel, it must one day crumble away, and be laid 
even with the dust. The house not made with hands, 
eternal in the heavens, wherewith we hope to be 
clothed upon when this frail mortality is put off, that 
house we must now carefully build up here by the 
faith of Jesus. 



NOTES. 



FAGS 

I. History of the Early Churches of Brooklyn, with an 
Account of the Planting of the Church on Long 

Island, 35 

II. Sketch of the Life of Edgar J. Bartow, . . . . 55 
HI. Sketch of the Life of Minard Lafever, . . . .59 
IV. Architectural Description of the Church, Chapel, and 

Rectory, 61 

V. The Opening Services at the Church of the Holy Trinity, 66 

VI. Sketch of the Life of the Rev. William H. Lewis, D. D., 70 

VII. Consecration of the Church of the Holy Trinity, . . 73 
VIII. Sketch of the Life of the Rev. A. N. Littlejohn, D. D., 76 



5 



NOTES. 



Note I. Page i6. 

History of the' Early Churches of Brooklyn^ with an Account of 
the Planti?ig of the Church on Long Island. 

It may be interesting to introduce this slight sketch of the older 
churches of Brooklyn, with a brief account of the original plant- 
ing of the church on this Island. 

The services of the Church of England were first introduced 
here in the summer of 1702. The Society for Propagating the 
Gospel in Foreign Parts, having been established by charter on 
the sixteenth of June, 1701, one of its first acts was to send to the 
English colonies on this continent the Rev. George Keith, the 
first missionar).' of the Society to America, on a tour of observa- 
tion. In a letter to the Secretary,* which is supposed to have led 
to his appointment, in giving an account of the state of religion 
in several parts of this country where he had travelled, he thus 
speaks of this Island : " In Long Island there are not many 
Quakers ; it is a great place and has many inhabitants, English 
and Dutch ; the Dutch are Calvanists and have some Calvanist- 
ical Congregations ; the English some of them Independents, but 
many of them no Religion, but like Wild Indians ; there is no 
Church of England in all Long Island, nor in all that great Con- 
tinent of New York Province, except at New York Town." t 

IMr. Keith set sail on the twenty-eighth day of April, 1702, from 
Cowes in the Isle of Wight, accompanied by the Rev. John Tal- 
bot, and the Rev. Patrick Gordon, the latter having been ap- 
pointed the first missionary for Long Island, and arrived in 
Boston on the eleventh of June. Mr. Gordon repaired to his 

* Collections of the Prot. Epis, Historical Soc, vol. i., p. xi. 

t Trinity Church, founded in the year 1696. Services, however, had been 
held previously, in a chapel in the Fort, near the Battery, in 1664. See Dr. 
Berrian's Hist. Sketchy p. ii. 



36 Planting of the Church on Long Island, 

appointed field and was styled the Rector of Queen's County. 
He commenced his missionan' labors during the administration 
of Lord Cornbur}^, Governor of New York and the Jerseys, to 
w^hom particular instructions were sent, enjoining him, as a part 
of his official duty, to give all countenance and encouragement 
to the exercise of the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Bishop of 
London, as far as conveniently might be, in the province. In Mr. 
Keith's Journal,* we find that he and Mr. Talbot, in the Septem- 
ber following their arrival, visited Oyster Bay, Flushing, and 
Hempstead, where they held services and administered the rites 
of the Church ; and again in November and December, on their 
return from a tour through a part of New York, New Jersey, and 
Pennsylvania. On the third of April, 1703, he wites to the Sec- 
retar}^ of the Honorable Society, of the extreme desire that the 
people have in several places to have Church of England minis- 
ters sent to them, particularly at Oyster Bay and Hempstead, in 
Long Island ; and in a postscript, adds : " I suppose long before 
this you have heard of the Decease of Worthy Mr. Gordon, who 
dyed at Jamaica, on Long Island, about six weeks after his arrival 
with us at Boston ; his sickness was a violent fever that was then 
frequent at N. York, where it's thought he first had it. I hope 
his decease will be no discouragement to other Good men to come 
into these parts, where the Harvest is so great and the Labourers 
so few." t 

At first the services in these localities were usually in town- 
houses or private dwellings, by itinerating clerg}Tnen, and at 
occasional inter\'als. i\Ir. Keith visited them again in November, 
1703.1 Soon after, in January, 1705, the Rev. John Thomas was 
settled at Hempstead, who also supplied the adjacent towns. 
The Rev. Mr. Vesey, of New York, and the Rev. John Bartow, of 
Westchester, officiated frequently at Jamaica. § After temporary 
services by the Rev. Messrs. Hone}Tnan and Mott, on the fourth 
of July, 1704, the Rev. William Urquhart began his ministr}' in 

* Journal of Travels from New Hampshire to Caratuck in the Continejit of 
North America^ London, 1706, pp. 27-34. 

t Collections of the Prot. Epis. Historical Soc, vol. i., p. xxvi. 

X Of the extent and success of his labors, see Bp. Wilberforce's Am, Ch., 
pp. 97, 98. 

§ Bolton's Hist, of the Ch. in Westchester Co., p. 16. 



At Jamaica, Hempstead, etc. 



37 



this parish, which then included Newtown and Fhishing. Cler- 
gy-men in Connecticut, li\dng near the Sound, often crossed and 
held services on the Island, as did the Rev. Samuel Johnson, of 
Stratford, at Brook Haven * In the Societ}^'s Report in 1706, it 
is stated that her ^lajest}^. Queen Anne, was pleased to allow 
the Churches of Hempstead, Jamaica, Westchester, Rye, and Sta- 
ten Island each a large Church Bible, Common Prayer Book, Book 
of Homilies, a cloth for the Pulpit, a Communion Table, and a 
Silver ChaHce and Paten. The Rev. Thomas Poyer succeeded the 
Rev. Mr. Urquhart on the eighteenth of July, 1710 ; and during 
the first five years of his ministr}- at Jamaica and the two other 
towns where he officiated, the number of communicants was 
doubled, amounting to above sixt}'. In the List of Parishes 
taken from the Societ}-'s Books, July i, 1724, he and the Rev. 
Mr. Thomas at Hempstead, are recorded as each having a par- 
sonage-house and glebe, and receiving an allowance of ;^5o a 
year.t Of the great need of churches and of clerg}^ at this 
period, some idea may be formed from the fact that in the New 
York Government, there were 30,000 souls at least, of whom 
only about 1200 frequented the church, and about 450 were com- 
municants. 4 

A church was built in Hempstead in 1734, a few rods east of 
the present edifice, and was consecrated on the twent}'-third of 
April, 1735, the Rev. Robert Jenney, D. D., who was rector from 
1726 to 1742, preaching the sermon from Ps. Ixxxiv. 11 and i2.§ 
In describing the church, he says : " It is fift}^ feet long and 
thirt}--six "wdde, ysixYi a steeple twentv'-four feet square ; that 
Gov. Crosby and lady had named it St. George's, and appointed 
St. George's Day for the opening it." The Rev. Samuel Seabur}-, 
a graduate of Har\-ard College in 1724, and the first rector of 
St. James', New London, succeeded Dr. Jenney, in 1743, and 
remained in charge to his death, which occurred on the fifteenth 
of June, 1764^ at the age of fift}--eight years. || From August 1766 to 

* Dr. Beardsley's Hist, of the Ch. m Co7in., p. 60. 

t Fulham MSS. — Collections of the Prot. Epis. Hist. Soc, vol. i., p. 126. 
t Humphrey's Hist, of the Soc. for the Prop, of the Gospel, p. 41. 
§ New York Gazette, April 28, 1735. 

;i Bolton's Hist, of the Ch. in Westchester Co., p. 79. — Doc. Hist, of the Ch. 
in Connecticut, vol. i., pp. 322-324, 



38 Planting of the Church on Long Island, 

1784, the Rev. Leonard Cutting filled the rectorship j and on March 
6, 1785, the Rev. Thomas L. Moore, brother of the Rt. Rev. 
Richard Channing Moore, who had been preaching at Setauket 
and Islip, was settled here. He died on the twentieth of Feb- 
ruary, 1799, and the Rev. John H. Hobart, D. D., succeeded him 
on the first of June, 1800, but in the December following removed 
to Trinity Church, New York, and was elected assistant bishop in 
181 1. The Rev. Seth Hart next filled the ofhce for nearly thirty 
years. 

In 1734, Grace Church, Jamaica, was consecrated, the Rev. 
Thomas Colgan, who entered upon the rectorate two years before, 
on the death of the Rev. Mr. Poyer, preaching from Gen. xxviii. 
16, 17."^ In a letter to the Society in England, he writes that this 
church " is thought one of the handsomest in America." Governor 
Crosby and lady, the Council, and many ladies and gentlemen of 
distinction from the oity, honored the occasion with their pres- 
ence, when a splendid entertainment was given by Samuel 
Clowes, Esq., an eminent lawyer residing there. His Excellency's 
wife presented the Congregation with a large Bible, Common 
Prayer Book, and a Surplice for the Rector.t On the twelfth of 
January, 1757, the Rev. Samuel Seabury, Jr., son of the rector 
of Hempstead, and afterwards the first American bishop, was 
inducted into this parish by Sir Charles Hardy, Governor of New 
York, in which charge he remained until transferred to West- 
chester on the third of December, 1766.$ He had, soon after his 
graduation in 1748 at Yale College, and before going to England 
for orders, been appointed Catechist by the Venerable Society, 
under the direction of his father, at Huntington, where a parish 
was early established. While settled at Jamaica, Mr. Seabury 
complained to the Venerable Society of the injurious effect of 
infrequent services upon the religious interests of his people, he 
being able to pass only one Sunday in three in each place ; and 
earnestly pleaded the necessity of having bishops resident in this 

* New York Gazette, April 8, 1734. 

t Thompson's Hist, of Long Island, vol. ii., p. 125. 

% Doc. Hist, of the Ck. in Conn., vol. i., p. 325. — Sprague's Annals of the 
American Episcopal Pulpit, p. 150. 



At Flushing, Newtown, etc. 



39 



country, in order to promote the growth and efficiency of the 
Church. For a time, the Society refused to provide a successor, 
or make any allowance ; but eventually, on the twenty-third of 
May, 1769, caused the Rev. Joshua Bloomer to be inducted into 
the office, agreeing to contribute ^^30 a year, if the three congrega- 
tions would add ^50, towards his support. His ministry was 
very prosperous, and upon his death in 1790, the Rev. William 
Hammel assumed charge. He was succeeded by the Rev. 
Elijah D. Rattoone, D. D., in May 1797, who served until I802. 
After this several changes took place in the rectorship until the 
first of May, 18 10, when the late Gilbert H. Sayers, D. D., was 
settled here, followed in 1830 by the Rev. William L. Johnson, D.D. 

In Flushing an Episcopal organization was formed in 1702 ; 
and in 1746, Capt. Ralph Wentworth donated half an acre of 
land for the site of a church, and gave likewise a considerable 
sum toward its erection, which took place probably before 1750. 
In 1 76 1, a charter of incorporation was executed by Lieut. Gov. 
Golden, by the name and style of St. George's Church. At 
Newtown, twenty square rods of ground were given by the 
authorities for a church lot, on the nineteenth of April, 1733. A 
building was erected thereon in 1734, repaired in 1760, and a 
charter granted, with the title of St. James' Church, by Lieut. 
Gov. Golden, in 1761. This church withdrew from its connec- 
tion with Flushing and Jamaica, shortly after the Revolution, and 
in 1797 settled the Rev. Henry Van Dyke as rector, who served 
for five years. In April, 1803, however, a union was formed with 
the church at Flushing, and the Rev. Abraham L. Clarke, of Rhode 
Island, inducted rector; but after 1809, the two churches again 
became distinct.* Mr. Clarke died on the thirty-first of Decem- 
ber, 18 10, and in 18 12 the vacancy was filled by the Rev. AVilliam 
E. Wyatt, D. D., who was afterwards called to the rectorship of 
St. Paul's Church, Baltimore. The Rev. Evan M. Johnson was 
the next rector from 18 14 to his removal to Brooklyn, in March, 
1827, when he was succeeded by the Rev. George A. Shelton. 

In Brooklyn, Episcopal services were regularly established 
sometime before the Revolution, probably as early as 1766, 

* Riker's A^mals of Newtown, p, 252. 



40 The Early Churches of Brooklyn, 

although owing to the destruction of the records during the war, 
the precise date is not known.* From its settlement in 1636 by 
families of the Walloons, who came from Holland,! for nearly a 
century and a half, the population was small, and almost entirely 
Dutch. During the first forty years, there was no place of wor- 
ship here, the people crossing to New Amsterdam or journeying 
to the Flatbush Church ; and for one hundred and twenty- five 
years, a Reformed Dutch Church in Fulton Avenue, near the 
old grave-yard, stood solitary and alone. $ Even after the Rev- 
olution there were less than sixty houses in the town, and not 
more than that number of families. 

While occupied by the British army, divine services, according 
to the usages of the Church of England, were held in the Dutch 
Church. The Rev. James Sayre officiated from 1778 to about 
the time of the Evacuation in 1783. The Rev. George Wright 
succeeded him during the following year, conducting the services 
first in a private dweUing standing where No. 43 Fulton Street now 
is, then in John JVTiddagh's barn on the corner of the present Henry 
and Poplar Streets, and afterwards in a small building erected by 
the British, and fitted up for the purpose, on the corner of Fulton 
and Middagh Streets. Subsequently, a frame building which had 
been put up and occupied for a short time by the Independents 
in 1785, on a part of the recent Episcopal Burying-ground in 
Fulton Street, became the place of worship, and was consecrated 
by Bishop Provoost in 1787. On the tw^enty-third of April of the 
same year, this church was incorporated under the title of " The 
Episcopal Church of Brooklyn," with the following trustees : 
Whitehead Cornell, Joseph Sealy, Matthew Cleaves, John Van 
Nostrand, Joshua Sands, Aquila Giles, and Henry Stanton. § The 
rector having removed in 1789, the Rev. Elijah D. Rattoone, 
P, D., was elected, and served until March, 1792, when he 
accepted the Professorship of the Greek Language in Columbia 

* Fish's Hist of St. Ami's Ch., pp. 9, 10. — Gray's Memoirs of Rev. B. C. 
Cutler, D.D., p. 138. 
t Dr. Stiles' Hist, of Brooklyn, vol. i., pp. 16-25. 
% Disosway's Earliest Churches of New York, p. 322. 
§ Fuvmaii's Notes relating to the Tozvn of Brooklyn, p. 80. 



S^. Anns Church. 



41 



College. In January, 1793? after services by the Rev. Ambrose 
Hull for a few months, the Rev. Samuel Nesbitt took charge of 
the parish, during whose rectorship the church was reorganized 
and incorporated under its present name of St. Ann's Church. 

St. Ann's Church began its new corporate existence on the 
twenty^-second of June, 1795. The first Church-wardens were 
John Van Nostrand and George Powers ; and Vestrymen, Joshua 
Sands, Paul Durel, Joseph Fox, William Carpenter, x^quila Giles, 
John Cornell, Gilbert Van Mater, and Robert Stoddard. On the 
resignation of the Rev. Mr. Nesbitt in 1798, the Rev. John Ire- 
land became rector, and officiated until May, 1807. In 1804 a 
new stone church was erected on the corner of Sands and Wash- 
ington Streets. Prominent among the warm supporters and liberal 
benefactors of this church, were the families of Joshua Sands and 
John Cornell. From the former came a most valuable donation 
of land for the new site. Mrs. Ann Sands devoted her energies, 
her time, and large pecuniary resources, during her long life, to 
this church, and it was called after St. Aiui, it is said, by way of 
compliment to her high Christian character, and her great and 
unwearied benevolence.^ On the thirtieth of May, 1805, it was 
consecrated by the Rt. Rev. Benjamin Moore. Here very able 
and successful ministers labored. From 1807 to 18 14, the Rev. 
Henry Feltus, D. D., was rector, " greatly to the satisfaction of 
his flock ; " and for the three years following, the Rev. John P. 
K. Henshaw, D. D., who, on the eleventh of August, 1843, ^^'^.s 
consecrated Bishop of Rhode Island. He was succeeded from 
July, 18 1 7, until November, 18 19, by the Rev. Hugh Smith, D. D., 
when the Rev. Henry U. Onderdonk, D. D., entered upon the 
rectorship, and remained until October, 1827 ; at which time he 
removed to Philadelphia, having been elected Assistant Bishop of 
Pennsylvania, to the sole charge of which he succeeded on the 
death of Bishop White. During his connection with the parish, 
the present edifice was erected on the western side of the lot, the 
walls of the previous church having been greatly damaged in 

* Furman's Notes. Appendix, p. xiv. — Gray's Memoirs of Dr. Cutler, pp. 
I38> 139- 

6 



42 



The Early Churches of Brooklyn. 



August, 1808, by the explosion of a powder-house m the vicinit}^, , 
and for many years considered unsafe. The corner-stone was 
laid on the thirty-first of March, 1824, and the building completed 
and consecrated on the thirtieth of June, 1825, by the Rt. Rev. 
John Croes, D. D., of New Jersey, acting for Bishop Hobart, then 
absent in Europe. The sermon was preached by the venerable 
Bishop White, of Pennsylvania, and the sentence of consecration 
read by the Rev. Mr, Whitehouse.^ The dimensions of the 
church were 98 feet in length, by 68 in width, and 34 feet in 
height, to the eaves, and 80 to the summit of the tower. The 
Rev. Charles P. Mcllvaine, D. D., officiated here with great 
acceptance and success, from the autumn of 1827 to April, 1833, 
when he resigned, having become Bishop of Ohio, on the thirt}^- 
first of October of the previous year. 

On the twenty-first of April, 1833, after this long succession of 
rectors, many of whom were of marked ability and distinction, 
but whose brief stay had been much lamented, the Rev. Benjamin 
C. Cutler was instituted into the rectorship, and continued for 
thirty years his faithful and laborious services, until his death, on 
the tenth of February, 1863.! In his Quarter-Century Discourse, 
preached in St. Ann's, in May, 1858, he thus alludes to the 
growth and the changes which he had witnessed : " Twent}'-five 
years ago, when the speaker was invited to take charge of this 
church, Brooklyn was literally a village. It contained fifteen 
thousand inhabitants. Now^, transformed into a city^ it includes 
within its limits a population of t\vo hundred thousand. And, 
standing on the hill which commands a view of its whole extent, 
observing how rapidly it is filling up in every direction — with so 
large an area yet unoccupied — one needs not the spirit of 
prophecy, safely to predict that, at the end of another quarter of 
a century, our elder city will find Brooklyn no inconsiderable 
competitor. It is not improbable, however, that long before that 
time, the t^vo cities will have been united in one, and that the 
great Metropolis of this Western World will stretch along on 
both sides of our noble river. When St. Ann's Church was 
* The Long Island Star, August 4, 1825. 

t Gray's Memoirs. — Fish's Hist, of St. Ann's Chtirch, pp. 72-123. 



S^. Anns Church. 



43 



erected thirty years ago, the bell which now tolls out the hour of 
prayer, could easily be heard over the whole village ; but now, 
without having lost any of its strength or sweetness of tone, it 
lifts its voice in vain to our distant parishioners, in the broad 
avenues and extended streets of this wide-spreading city. . . . 
Twenty" new Episcopal parishes have been organized. One 
splendid Episcopal Church has been built and filled in a central 
position, and other beautiful edifices of the same kind have been 
erected. Able, eloquent, zealous, skillful, and untiring rectors 
have been engaged in this field. Yet here we are to-day, in one 
corner of the city, in an old-fashioned church, which has no orna- 
ment, not even a cross — (not more destitute in this point, how- 
ever, than when it was built) — and, thanks be to God ! holding 
our own, with nearly as many people as we can accommodate, 
and quite as many as we can be faithful to, and with three 
flourishing Sunday-schools, which are the great feeders of the 
Church." The number of communicants added during those 
twenty-five years, was 775 ; of persons baptized, 1382 ; of mar- 
riages, 509 ; of burials, 823 ; of confirmations, on fourteen occa- 
sions, 558 persons. 

The Rev. Lawrence H. Mills, who had been officiating previous 
to Dr. Cutler's death, succeeded him as rector, in March, 1864. 
Steps were taken soon afterward, toward erecting a new church 
and chapel on the corner of Clinton and Tivingston Streets, from 
designs prepared by Messrs. Renwick and Sands ; and the chapel 
was begun in 1866, and opened for divine services in the spring 
of the following year. Upon the withdrawal of Mr. Mills, on the 
first of April, 1867, the Rev. Noah H. Schenck, D. D., was called, 
and inducted into the rectorship on Ascension Day, the thirtieth 
of May. The corner-stone of the large and elaborate church 
edifice, now in process of erection, was laid on the fifth of June, 
1867, by the Bishop of the Diocese, the Rev. Drs. Littlejohn and 
Schenck delivering addresses. 

For more than forty years this was the only Episcopal parish 
in Brooklyn, and of many of the churches that have risen within 
its borders, her members have been the chief founders, or have 
greatly assisted in their organization. 



44 1^^^ Early Churches of Brooklyn. 



St. John's Church, on the corner of Washington and Johnson 
Streets, was erected during the summer of 1826. This parish owes 
its origin and maintenance during many of its earlier years, to the 
foresight and Hberality of its first rector, the Rev. Evan M. John- 
son. He was born at Newport, R. I., on the sixth of June, 
1792, was graduated at Brown University in 18 12, took charge 
of St. James's Church, Newtown, L. I., in 18 14, and became 
rector of this church in March, 1827. The edifice, built by the 
Rev. Mr. Johnson at his own expense, on his own land, and for 
several years generously furnished to the congregation free of 
cost, was first opened for divine service on the twenty-fourth of 
September, 1826 ; and for a few months he was assisted in the 
services by the Rev. John A. Hicks. On Easter Day, 1827, there 
were nineteen communicants. The day following, Theodosius 
Hunt and William Furman were elected Church-wardens, and 
Evan Malbone, Joseph N. Smith, William A. Sale, Henry Dike- 
man, Isaac Odell, Gabriel Furman, John Taylor, and Nathan B. 
Morse, Vestrymen. On the tenth of July of the same year, the 
church was consecrated by Bishop Hobart. The attendance con- 
tinuing to increase, it was considerably enlarged and improved in 
1832, and purchased by the congregation. In 1835, ^^le Rev. Jacob 
W. Diller became assistant minister ; and in 184 1, the Rev. Stephen 
Patterson officiated in the same relation for a year, and was fol- 
lowed by the Rev. Caleb S. Henry, D. D., Professor of Moral 
Philosophy in the University of the city of New York. A few 
years later, still further quite extensive repairs and improvements 
were made in the church, especially in the arrangements of the 
chancel. In July, 1847, the Rev. Mr. Johnson withdrew, after 
the long period of over twenty years of faithful services, without 
remuneration ; in order to establish a free mission church, St. 
Michael's, in a neighborhood destitute of all church privileges, 
where he gratuitously and successfully labored for the remainder 
of his days. He was succeeded in St. John's by the Rev. Samuel 
R. Johnson, D. D., also a devoted pastor and liberal benefactor 
of the parish ; who, however, resigned on the eighteeenth of No- 
vember, 1850, having been elected Professor of Systematic Divin- 
ity in the General Theological Seminary in New York. 



kS/. Johns Church. 



45 



The Rev. N. A. Okeson, D. D., next filled the rectorship, 
entering upon his duties on the first of January, 185 1, and wit- 
nessed a considerable increase in the numbers and strength of 
the congregation, but removed in October, 1852, and became the 
pastor of St. Paul's Church, Norfolk, Va. His successor was 
the Rev. Thomas T. Guion, D. D., who commenced his labors on 
the first of February, 1853, and remained in charge until his 
death, in the autumn of 1862. In a memorial sermon, preached 
by the Rev. Edward Jessup, in the church, on the twenty-sixth of 
October of that year, a few days after his lamented decease, the 
following deserved tribute was paid to his services here : " Let 
it be remembered to his lasting honor that what St. John's 
is now, it has been made by his faithful labors. Whatever im- 
provement has taken place within the past ten years, whether in 
the size of the congregation, in the financial condition of the 
parish, or in the character of the edifice in which you worship, 
you owe it all, under God, to him. A dilapidated and uninviting 
church j a debt of about six thousand dollars ; an income so 
limited that it was regarded almost as a risk to offer him a salary 
of one thousand dollars a year — such was the condition of affairs 
which he was called to face when he assumed the rectorship ten 
years ago. ... At the end of two years, by a judicious ar- 
rangement of systematic offerings, the debt was entirely extin- 
guished." Six years afterwards, in 186 1, " a plan was resolved 
upon for a renovation " of the church, " so extensive as to amount 
almost to a reedification of the decayed and unsightly structure. 
He lived to see that plan fulfilled, together with the erection of a 
new chapel, at a total cost of about twelve thousand dollars. For 
a few weeks only was he permitted to minister in this beautified 
sanctuary, when unexpectedly he was smitten down." He was 
buried from the church on the twenty-fourth of October, 1862, 
amid a large concourse of the clergy, and of his parishioners and 
friends. 

For a few months, until permanent arrangements could be 
made, the Rev. George W. Nichols took charge of the services, 
aided by the Rev. Henry A. Spafard, before and since an assistant 
minister of the parish. In June, 1863, the Rev. George F. Sey- 



46 The Early Clmrches of Brooklyn, 



moiir, D. D., accepted a call to the vacant rectorate, visiting the 
church once a month to administer the Holy Communion, until 
the first of October, when he removed to Brookhm and took 
charge. Called to the Chair of Ecclesiastical History in the 
General Seminary in 1865, he terminated his connection with the 
parish on the Feast of Epiphany, 1867, when the Rev. Alexander 
Burgess, D. D., assumed charge. 

From 1826 to 1S47, there were 1346 baptisms. 587 marriages, 
and 499 communicants ; from 1847 October, 1863, 709 bap- 
tisms, 248 marriages, and about 900 communicants : and from 
the latter date to Januaiy i, 1868, 376 baptisms, 92 marriages, 
and about 400 communicants enrolled, 418 being at present con- 
nected vdth the parish. The rector}- has of late been enlarged 
and fitted up. adjoining the church. 

Christ Church was organized on the eighteenth of IMav, 
1835, although two years elapsed before the commencement of 
regular public worship. A chapel was first erected on the corner 
of Pacific and Court Streets, 30 feet wide and 60 long, with a 
basement for the Sunda^'-school. After temporary supplies of 
ministerial sendees for a few months, on the first Sunday in 
Februar}^ 1838, the Rev. Kingston Goddard entered upon his 
duties as rector. In 1839 he reported 109 communicants, 
and the year following 158, adding, "so great has been the 
increase of the parishioners that the chapel as enlarged is found 
too limited for our accommodation. The Vestry have therefore 
entered upon the erection of a new church, the site of which is 
the liberal gift of one of their own body, Xicholas Luquer, Esq.'" 
INIr. Goddard resigned on the twent}--sixth of April, 1841 ; and 
on the eleventh of June following, the Rev. John S. Stone. D. D., 
accepted the vacant rectorship, and commenced his labors early 
in July. 

The corner-stone of the new church, on the corner of Clinton 
and Harrison Streets, was laid on the twent}--sixth of June, 1841, 
by the Bishop of the Diocese, the Rev. Dr. Cutler delivering an ad- 
dress ; and so expeditiously did the work proceed, that the edifice 
was consecrated on the twenty-eighth of July, 1842. The congre- 



Christ Churchy and Calvary Church. 47 



gation was at once greatly enlarged, and during the following 
years steadily received accessions from the increasing population of 
this new part of the cit}^ The church, designed by Mr. Richard 
Upjohn, is built of fine grained Jersey freestone, and with the 
tower and chapel measures 155 feet in length, and 60 in 
breadth. The exterior is exceedingly chaste and pleasing in 
effect, with walls well flanked by buttresses^ and a massive tower 
of imposing dimensions, 117 feet in height, serving as a porch 
and organ galler}^, and furnished with a bell and clock. The 
interior presents a nave and aisles of seven bays, with a lofty ceil- 
ing of hea\7 spandrels, and chancel at the west end of the nave. 
The altar-screen, pews, and galleries are of black walnut, richly 
panneled. 

During the eleven and a half years of Dr. Stone's connection 
with the parish, there were 512 baptisms, 135 confirmations, 108 
maiTiages, and 178 funerals. On his withdrawal the Rev. Eli H. 
Canfield, D. D., succeeded to the rectorship on January i, 1853 j 
and at the close of his first ten years' ministry reported 581 bap- 
tisms, 246 confirmations, the number of communicants increased 
from about 300 to 569, 127 marriages, 227 funerals, the sum of 
$92,589.78 contributed to religious and benevolent objects, with 
the debt on the church paid, the chapel enlarged, and a flourish- 
ing Mission Chapel established in the Twelfth Ward, under the 
pastoral care of the Rev. James S. Barnes. In the spring of 1867 
this latter enterprise became an independent parish, and was 
organized by the name of the Church of Our Saviour, under 
the rectorship of the Rev. William M. Postlethwaite ; since which 
time it has greatly enlarged its sphere of missionary work, and 
with its multiplied services and efQcient lay co-workers, is reach- 
ing and benefiting a very large population in its vicinity. Re- 
cently another Mission Chapel has been erected by this liberal 
congregation on Red Hook Point, the corner-stone of which was 
laid by the Rev. Dr. Canfield on the eighth of November, 1867. 

Calvary Church, in Pearl Street, near Concord, was opened 
for public worship on the fifteenth of November, 1840. The 
edifice had been previously occupied by a congregation known 



48 The Early Churches of Brooklyn, 



as St. Paul's, organized in September, 1833, under the rectorship 
of the Rev. Thomas Pyne, who was followed in November, 1834, 
by the Rev. Thomas S. Brittan, but owing to pecuniar}^ embarrass- 
ments, the parish was dissolved and the building abandoned. It 
was afterwards purchased by Edgar J. Bartow, Esq., improved 
and appropriately fitted up, furnished with a bell and organ, and 
the Rev. William H. Lewis invited to take charge by him, with 
the guarantee of a support on his own responsibility for one year. 
Subsequently, at a meeting of those friendly to the formation of 
a new parish, held on the fifteenth of December, 1840, it was 
resolved to organize under the name of Calvary Church ; and the 
following gentlemen were chosen as officers : Capt. John T. 
Newton and Joseph Christopher, Wardens ; John T. Davenport, 
Darius Wells, Edward Doyle, Edgar J. Bartow, Isaac Peck, 
Joseph Pettit, David Gardner, and Nicholas Luquer, Vestrymen. 
The appointment of Mr. Lewis as rector was confirmed ; and in 
the following autumn, he reported to Convention that " in a few 
months, the accommodations were found insufficient, and Mr. 
Bartow, at the request of the Vestry, very cheerfully consented 
to enlarge them at his own expense. During most of the ten 
months that we have been in operation, the edifice has been 
undergoing improvements, without, however, interrupting a single 
service ; and now that they are nearly completed, we are in a 
place of worship of twice the former size, which will contain, gal- 
leries included, seven hundred or more, with a basement which 
will accommodate three hundred and fift}^ Sunday scholars. This 
enlarged church, for several months past, has been completely 
filled with a congregation, intelligent, respectable, and devout in 
appearance, among whom we have many proofs that the Spirit 
of God has been carr}dng on His new-creating work. The quiet, 
unobtrusive benevolence of the individual to whom we are so 
much indebted for our church accommodations, needs no praise ; 
but it should be mentioned, that we are also greatly indebted to 
our brethren of other Episcopal congregations in Brooklyn for 
their liberal contributions, and to their respective rectors, for 
the kindest and most cordial cooperation with us in all our 
efi"orts." 



Grace Churchy Brooklyn Heights. 49 



Dr. Lems resigned on the fifteenth of June, 1847, having taken 
charge of the Church of the Holy Trinit}\ During his rectorate 
there were 451 baptisms, 193 confirmations, 79 marriages, 223 
funerals, and a list of resident communicants increased to 364. 

This may be well considered the parent church of the Holy 
Trinity, as not only a large portion of the congregation, but its 
founder, rector, organist, choir, and sexton, all became con- 
nected with the latter, in the same relations. The Rev. John F. 
Fish, D. D., who had been assisting in Calvary Church for a short 
time, became rector, and soon gathered a large and flourishing 
congregation. In consequence of impaired health, in 1849 
accepted a chaplaincy in the United States Army ; and during the 
following years, under the charge of several clergymen, none of 
whom remained long, the parish underwent great fluctuations, 
sometimes intermitting all services, and finally in 186 1 ceased to 
exist. 

Grace Church, Brooklyn Heights, is an organization which 
was preceded by that known as Emmanuel Church, Sidney Place, 
incorporated in 184 1. A neat brick edifice, finished in the spring 
of 1842, was consecrated on the third of March of that year, and 
the Rev. Kingston Goddard became the first rector. The Vestry 
in 1843 were, Conklin Brush and Oliver H. Gordon, Wardens ; 
George Hastings, Henry S. Wyckoff, Edward Whitehouse, William 
Dumont, D. H. Arnold, G. F. Duckwitz, R. Aborn, and George 
F. Thomae, Vestrymen ; and Charles Congdon, acting Secretary. 
Early in 1844, the Rev. Mr. Goddard resigned his charge, and 
soon after the Rev. Francis Vinton, D. D., of Trinity Church, 
Ne^vport, R. L, was called to the rectorship, and entered upon 
his duties in the following August. The progress of the parish 
was such as to warrant, a few years later, the building of a large 
and costly church. 

At a meeting held in the basement of Emmanuel Church on 
the third of May, 1847, a new organization, under the name of 
Grace Church, Brooklyn Heights, was effected, and the Rev. Dr. 
Vinton called as rector. The corner-stone of the new edifice, on 
Hicks Street and Grace Court, was laid by the Rt. Rev. William 
7 



50 The Early Churches of Brooklyn. 

H. De Lancey, D. D., Bishop of Western New York, on St. 
Peter's Day, the twenty-ninth of June, 1847. The church, de- 
signed by Mr. Richard Upjohn, consists of nave and aisles ; 
chancel raised four steps above the nave and separated from the 
sacrarium by a rise of another step and a light metal railing, gilt ; 
a sacristy on the north side of the chancel with an entrance 
through a turret, in which is the bell. The original plans con- 
templated a south-west tower of effective proportions, 167 feet 
high, which has not yet been executed. The st}de chosen is late 
Middle Pointed. The chancel screens, altar, sedilia, and other 
furniture of the church are of black walnut, while the constructive 
features, the roof and the columns, are pine, painted. The font 
is of stone, of large size and elaborate design, and stands at the 
south-western doorway. The nave has an organ gallery at the 
west end ; and the space underneath was formerly screened off 
for a chapel, but has 'since been fitted up as a part of the church. 
The roofs of the nave and chancel are enriched with polychro- 
matic painting, and the walls in several parts with texts appropri- 
ately executed. On Christmas Day, 1848, the church was opened 
for divine services ; and on the twenty-sixth of June, 1849, it 
was consecrated by the Rt. Rev. AVilliam R. Whittingham, D. D., 
Bishop of Maryland. 

The Rev. Dr. Vinton resigned on the twenty-fifth of June, 1855, 
and accepted the office of Assistant Minister in Trinity Church, 
New York. On the twenty-third of the following October, the 
Rev. Jared B. Flagg, D. D., was called to the rectorate, and con- 
tinued to discharge its duties until the twentieth of October, 1863. 
During his connection with the parish, the rectory was built on 
Remsen Street. The Rev. Eugene A. Hoffman, D. D., was elected 
to fill the vacancy on the twenty-third of February, 1864. A large 
and commodious Sunday-school building, with apartments for the 
sexton in the basement, and for a parochial school and almonry 
on the first floor, has since been added at the west end of the 
church, the corner-stone of which was laid by Bishop Potter on 
the twenty-first of March, 1865 ; and the chancel of the church 
has been improved by polychrome decoration, and an eagle lec- 
tern of brass. 



S^, Lukes Church, 



51 



The statistics of this parish for the past twenty years, from 
1848 to 1867 inclusive, are 918 baptisms, 120 being adults and 
798 infants ; confirmations 591, marriages 205, burials 331, and 
the present number of communicants 539. The contributions 
for church purposes from 1856 to 1863 inclusive, eight years, 
were $60,023.32 ; and from 1864 to 1867 inclusive, four years, 
$115,113.54, — in all $175,136.84 for the last twelve years. 

The foregoing were the only churches of our communion in the 
cit}' proper, a quarter of a century ago. In the suburbs were two 
parishes, St. Luke's and St. Mary's, then but recently begun. 

St. Luke's, on Clinton Avenue, near Fulton, was organized in 
1842, and the Rev. Jacob W. Diller was called to the rectorship 
on the twenty-ninth of June of that year. A stone edifice, 60 feet 
long and 45 wide, had been erected, however, in 1835, and con- 
secrated in 1836, with the title of Trinity Church, — an organiza- 
tion started by the Rev. D. V. M. Johnson, who was rector for a 
year. The first Vestry consisted of George W. Pine and Robert 
Wilson, Wardens ; and D. B. Douglass, Charles Hoyt, Anson 
Blake, J. W. Hunter, Bethuel Ackerley, Charles Bashan, A. S. 
Van Nostrand, and A. B. Ellison, Vestrymen. On the removal 
of the Rev. Mr. Johnson, the Rev. Dr. Thomas W. Coit took 
charge for about a year and a half, and afterwards the Rev. R. 
C. Shimeall for three years. In 1841 the parish having become 
embarrassed, public worship was discontinued, and the church at 
length sold. It was purchased, and reorganized in June of the 
year following, under the name of St. Luke's. The plot of ground, 
ICQ by 200 feet, furnished a space in the rear for a rectory, built 
some years afterward ; and for the enlargement of the church 
edifice, which became necessary as the parish increased. This 
was effected in the summer of 1853, when a chancel and transepts 
were added at an outlay of over $15,000, after designs by Mr. 
Frank Wills. And although the venerable rector, since the time 
when his church stood almost alone in the fields, has witnessed 
the formation of several parishes in his neighborhood, and the 
enlargement of his own edifice, it is understood that still greater 
accommodations are necessary for the dense population that has 
steadily gathered around him. 



52 The Early Churches of Brooklyn. 

The number of baptisms in this parish has been 1822, of con- 
firmations 665, marriages 400, and burials 1056. Commencing 
with 12 communicants, the number enrolled has been 1399, of 
whom 108 died while in this parish ; the present number is 380. 
The daily service has been maintained for the last fifteen years, 
and a weekly communion during the past year. 

St. Mary's Church was begun on Classon Avenue at the Wal- 
labout, by the Rev. D. V. M. Johnson, while in charge of Trinity 
Church. A Sunday-school was commenced in March, 1836, and 
formed the nucleus of a church. Here the Rev. Mr. Johnson 
held services on Sunday afternoons for about six months. In 
May 1837, Mr. Joseph Hunter took charge of the school, and 
served as lay-reader to a small congregation which assembled 
with the children. During the year an edifice of a very limited 
extent was erected, Ind a church organized, to which the name 
of St. Mary's was given, This was consecrated on the first of 
February, 1840, and was enlarged in 1841, so as to accommodate 
about 250 persons. The Rev. John F. Messenger officiated for 
a year, when he was succeeded by the Rev. Mr. Flunter, who had 
been admitted to the diaconate on the seventh of July, 1839. 
Upon his removal to South Carolina in 1847, ^^le Rev. Thomas 
T. Guion of Danbury, Conn., was settled here for one year. The 
Rev. John A. Spooner next took charge for a while, and in the 
autumn of 1849 ^^v. John W. Shackelford was called to the 
rectorship. The parish grew rapidly during the following years, 
and the church was twice enlarged. In 1856, the Rev. Mr. John- 
son, who was originally instrumental in forming the parish, became 
rector ; and the accommodations being no longer adequate, ground 
was purchased in the neighborhood, on Classon Avenue, near 
Myrtle, 164 feet front and 218 deep. The corner-stone of a new 
edifice of brown freestone was laid in the summer of 1858 ; and 
the neat and tasteful Gothic structure, designed by Mr. Auch- 
muty, 58 feet wide and 115 feet long, with its tower and spire, and 
a capacious basement fitted up for the Sunday-school, completed 
in the year following, and opened for divine services on Trinity 
Sunday. The outlay for ground and church was $32,000 ; the 



S^. Mark's Church, E. D. 



53 



sittings are free. On the twenty-fourth of May, 1862, St. Mary's 
was consecrated by the Bishop of the Diocese, the Rev. Dr. 
Wilham F. Morgan, of St Thomas' Church, New York, preaching 
the sermon. 

The early records of the parish, embracing three or four years, 
have been lost ; since which time, there have been 1038 baptisms, 
of which 129 were of adults; 553 confirmations, 940 communi- 
cants enrolled, of whom 480 are now connected with this church ; 
290 marriages, and 609 burials. 

Besides these formerly suburban parishes, there was a contem- 
porary church movement in what was then the village of Williams- 
burgh, to which reference should be made, as that city has since 
become a part of Brooklyn itself 

St. Mark's Church, E. D., on Fourth Street, corner of South 
Fifth, was incorporated, and admitted into Convention in 1837. 
The Rector, Rev. Samuel M. Haskins, in a discourse on the 
Twenty-first anniversary of his pastorate, preached on the twenty- 
eighth of October, i860, thus alludes to the early history of his 
parish, and of the churches which have sprung from it : " Twenty- 
one years ago this day there stood, where I now stand, a small, 
whitewashed, brick building, in the midst of a corn-field. In it 
were gathered the little handful of St. Mark's congregation, com- 
prised of about fourteen families and eighteen communicants. 
The rapid increase of the village, and the consequent steady growth 
of the congregation, soon rendered it necessary to provide more 
ample church accommodations, and in less than three months the 
erection of a stone church was commenced. So great an under- 
taking for a congregation so small and feeble, was not undertaken 
without great exertions, toilsome solicitations, and severe dis- 
couragements ; and even then was it left heavily embarrassed 
with debt. In May, 1841, the church was completed and conse- 
crated. It was then thought larger than our need ; for though 
there was no other parish between Astoria and Brooklyn, yet our 
population was small and sparse — fields and orchards covered a 
large portion of our now populous city. Our congregation stead- 
ily increased with the increase of the city. In 1846, a new con- 



54 The Early Churches of Brooklyn. 



gregation, under the name of Christ Church, was organized, and 
entirely made up of famihes from St. Mark's. During the same 
year I commenced missionary services in the eastern part of the 
town, for the accommodation of my own parishioners there resid- 
ing, and also with the desire of forming a new parish. Having 
obtained from Trinity Church $200 per annum for the support of 
these services, and an equal amount by subscription from two 
families at Maspeth — one of them parishioners of St. Mark's — T 
called the Rev. Mr. Walsh, and gave in charge to him about 
twenty families, which at that time were connected with this 
parish. He officiated both at Williamsburgh and Maspeth every 
Sunday, until, through the laudable exertions and liberality of a 
few church families at Maspeth — four of which were connected 
with St. Mark's — a beautiful church was erected and conse- 
crated. They then called the Rev. Mr. Walsh as their pastor, 
who accepted, and resigned his charge in Williamsburgh to the 
Rev. Mr. Fash, then rector of St. Mark's Parochial School. Mr. 
Fash soon organized the parish under the title of St. Paul's 
Church, by which name it was incorporated, and received into 
Convention in 1848. 

" In the winter of 1846, 1 also organized St. James' (colored) con- 
gregation into a separate parish, and aided them with occasional 
services, and contributions from St. Mark's, until they were able 
to provide a clergyman for themselves. In 1847, Ascension 
Church, Greenpoint, was organized, and in the next year Calvary 
Church, in the north part of the town ; and a few years later Grace 
Church, in the eastern section of the city ; and though all these 
seven churches were so nearly simultaneous in their formation, 
yet through the generous aid of Trinity Church, and by personal 
application to Churchmen in and out of the parish, means were 
obtained to cancel the heavy embarrassments under which the 
Church had groaned from its infancy, and a sufficient amount 
loaned to enlarge the church by the addition of a proper chancel 
and choir, and an increase to the nave of about two hundred sit- 
tings. The church was at this time greatly beautified by the 
addition of memorial windows." A further provision has since 
been made of suitable rooms for the Sunday-school, and a parish 



Life of Edgar f. Bartow. 



55 



school. The Rev. Dr. Haskins gave as the summary of his paro- 
chial statistics for the first twenty-one years, 918 baptisms, of 
which 82 were adults; 408 confirmations, 291 marriages, 482 
burials, about 700 communicants enrolled, of whom 325 were 
still connected with the church. The communion alms were 
$3,202, the canonical and missionary offerings $3,124, and the 
weekly offerings and collections for parish purposes $10,862. 
Since the report, from 1861 to 1867 inclusive, there have been 
46 adult and 276 infant baptisms, 173 confirmations, 285 added 
to the list of communicants, with a present number of 357 ; 142 
marriages, 196 burials, and the sum of $17,075.48 contributed to 
various charitable objects. 

Beginning with these few parishes, which are all that were in 
existence here when the Church of the Holy Trinity was com- 
menced, less than twenty-five years ago, Brooklyn can now num- 
ber, in our communion, over thirty flourishing churches and mis- 
sion chapels, which have contributed no little toward earning 
for her that most worthy of all designations, — " The City of 
Churches." 



Note II. Page 18. 
Sketch of the Life of Edgar y. Bartow. 

Edgar John Bartow was born on the twenty-ninth of April, 
1809, at Fishkill, New York. His father, Augustus Bartow, of 
Pelham Manor, and his ancestors for several generations, were 
residents of Westchester, and descendants of General Bertaut, 
of Brittany, a French Protestant, who fled to England some time 
before 1672."^ The different branches of his family in England 
and this country were early distinguished for their attachment to 
our Church and their efforts to extend it ; and many of the name 
have been connected with its ministry. 

On the death of his father, Mr. Bartow's family, in 18 16, re- 
* Bolton's History of Westchester, vol. ii. p. 209. 



56 



Life of Edgar J. Bartow. 



moved to New York city, and became connected with St. 
George's Church, then under the pastoral charge of the Rev. 
Dr. Milnor. Baptized by the Rev. Dr. John Brown, then of 
Trinity Church, in his native place, and confirmed by Bishop 
Hobart, Mr, Bartow entered early and zealously upon all the 
duties and privileges of the Christian life, engaging heartily in 
the w^ork of the Sunday-school, and manifesting those decided 
traits of character and ardent love for the Church which marked 
his whole after-career. In I830 the family took up their resi- 
dence in Brooklyn, and were members of St. Ann's Parish, 
Mr. Bartow filling at different times the position of teacher, 
librarian, and secretary of the Sunday - school. On the thir- 
teenth of November, 1838, he was married by the Rev. Dr. 
Cutler to Harriet Constable, daughter of Mr. Hezekiah B. 
Pierrepont, of Brooklyn, — a person of kindred tastes, who 
shared in a remarkable degree his unostentatious and liberal 
spirit. 

Engaged from his youth in a large paper manufacturing busi- 
ness, at first with his elder brothers, Mr. Bartow prospered in his 
pecuniary affairs, and in 1840 began to form plans for the benefit 
of the church in this city. Having purchased an edifice in Pearl 
Street, which had been abandoned by another congregation, and 
organized a parish under the name of Calvary Church, he had 
soon the satisfaction of seeing it highly successful ; and, at his 
own expense, he subsequently enlarged it, contributing all the 
while more than half the sum required for its support. A few 
years afterward, being convinced of the necessity of still larger 
provision for the growth of our communion, he erected the 
Church, Chapel, and Rector}^ of the Holy Trinity, watching over 
the work with great care, and suggesting as it progressed some 
of its tasteful architectural features. For the next twelve years 
he was a most regular and earnest worshiper here, and during 
that time was not only the liberal supporter and contributor to 
its charitable plans and operations, but, in the most quiet and 
unobtrusive manner, conducted all the financial affairs of the 
parish. 

From the beginning it was his intention to complete the edifice 



Life of Edgar J. Bartow. 



57 



and transfer the title to the rector, church-wardens, and ves- 
trymen ; and his wife, at the time of her death, on the sixth of 
July, 1855, not only approved of this course, but proposed that 
from her own property should be contributed half of the whole 
outlay, making it the joint offering of both. The business mis- 
fortunes and entanglements which had been increasing for sev- 
eral years prevented the realization of these cherished plans. It 
was with the greatest reluctance and sorrow that in 1856, he was 
obliged to abandon the hope of relieving the church from its in- 
cumbrances himself, and forego the accomplishment of an under- 
taking to which had been devoted his chief thoughts and toils for 
years. Still, although a load of debt came upon the congrega- 
tion, the fact that the church was built at a time when in no 
other way it could have been done ; that it was generously sus- 
tained until others could take charge of it ; that its original cost 
was nearly double the amount of the incumbrances which had 
finally to be assumed as the amount of the purchase, — are suf- 
ficient to entitle him to no ordinary commendation, and to per- 
petuate his name and munificence in connection with it. 

During his more prosperous days, Mr. Bartow devoted his 
means and influence with Christian fidelity to all the interests of 
the church, and especially to every local organization or object 
in which he could be useful. For years after the Holy Trinity 
was opened, he liberally aided the congregation of Calvary 
Church in maintaining their services, presenting the use of the 
building ; and no one in this community contributed more to- 
wards relieving the necessities of the poor. In secular matters 
he was also identified with every movement that concerned the 
progress and improvement of Brooklyn. He took a warm interest 
in the laying out of streets, in the erection of houses and public 
buildings, and was instrumental in establishing the Montague 
Street Ferry, having built, at an outlay of over $45,000, the stone 
archways and inclined plane from the Heights to the river. In 
politics, although not an active participator, he was in his sym- 
pathies a Democrat, and in 1846 was chosen by that party as its 
candidate for Mayor ; but he declined the honor, although he 
would beyond a doubt have been elected. Thoroughly retired 
8 



58 



Life of Edgar J, Bartow. 



and domestic in his tastes and habits, fond of the congenial 
society of a few, whom he knew intimately and loved, he shrank 
as far as possible from public notice or commendation. His 
little family circle was ever pleased to greet especially the minis- 
ters of the Church ; and many are the bishops and clergymen 
from all parts of the country who have enjoyed the simple and 
genial hospitalities of his fireside, and still hold his memory in 
grateful recollection. 

On the fourth of October, i860, Mr. Bartow married Caroline, 
daughter of Col. John M. Gamble, U. S. M., of Morristown, 
New Jersey. He continued to reside in Brooklyn, although his 
business avocations called him frequently to Norwich, Connecti- 
cut, to superintend the operations of the Chelsea Manufacturing 
Company, of which he was president ; and in I863 passed the 
summer there with his family. It was at this time that the anxi- 
eties of his large and harassing financial obligations, and the 
repeated disappointments encountered in the prosecution of his 
plans, began perceptibly to affect his health. Cheerful and un- 
complaining heretofore in all his trials and misfortunes, sanguine 
and hopeful that eventually a successful result would crown his 
efforts, his mind now began to give way, his habitual serenity at 
times entirely forsook him, and the overtaxed brain showed 
symptoms of morbid and irregular action. His general health 
rapidly declined, and, while on a visit to Morristown for the ben- 
efit of a change of scene, he suffered an attack of paralysis, 
which proved fatal on Tuesday, the sixth of September, 1864. 

The funeral services took place on the following Friday at the 
Church of the Holy Trinity, amidst a large attendance of rela- 
tives and friends ; and, with the parting utterances of the Church 
he had loved so well, he was laid to rest in the burial grounds of 
the Pierrepont family on Lawngirt Hill, in Greenwood. He left 
a widow, two sons, and three daughters, and a wide family circle, 
to lament the affectionate husband, the kind and faithful father, 
and the attached friend. The Church lost in him a devoted ser- 
vant, and the community a wise benefactor. 



Life of Minard Lafever, 



59 



Note III. Page 19. 
Sketch of the Life of Minard Lafever. 

The architect not only of this church, but also of many other 
sacred and secular edifices in Brooklyn, well deserves the tribute 
of a brief biographical sketch. He was born near Morristown, 
New Jersey, in the year 1797, and removed with his parents, when 
quite young, to Seneca County, in Western New York. 

His paternal ancestors were French Huguenots, who sought 
refuge in this country after the revocation of the edict of Nantes. 
His mother was of Scotch descent, and a near relative of Gen. 
John Stark, the hero of the battle of Bennington, With such 
antecedents and early training, it is no marvel that love of coun- 
try and hatred of ecclesiastical usurpation and oppression were 
prominent developments of his character. 

In youth he enjoyed only the limited educational advantages 
furnished by our district schools in the newly-settled portions of 
the country. But he early manifested a decided taste and in- 
genuity in construction and in mechanics ; and, when scarcely 
nineteen, having then first heard of architecture as a distinct 
science, travelled on foot to Geneva, a distance of fifty miles, to 
obtain some elementary work on the subject. From the day on 
which he purchased a little English copy of the " Rudiments of 
Architecture," to the time of his death, he devoted all his thoughts 
and energies to advance and improve this noble art. In his zeal 
to learn, he visited every accessible structure which had any pre- 
tensions to architectural skill, and, with pencil and scale in hand, 
transferred to paper whatever was useful for study or reference. 
Among the works which he first saw was a huge wooden bridge, 
thrown across the Genesee River at Carthage, near the present 
city of Rochester, then considered a miracle of construction, 
with its single arch and immense span. He examined it with a 
critical eye, and, although a mere lad, predicted its certain self- 
destruction from longitudinal or vermicular vibration. A few 
days afterward, a heavy team passing across it, his sagacity was 



6o 



Life of Minard Lafever, 



verified, for it slowly heaved firom its abutments after a few vibra- 
tions, and swung en masse into the river below. 

Eager to avail himself of better opportunities for the study and 
practice of his chosen profession, he removed, in 1824, with his 
little family, to Newark, New Jersey, and for a time supported 
himself by his labor through the day as a carpenter and joiner, 
while he devoted his evenings to drawing plans and details for 
houses and other buildings. As he became more widely known 
as an architect, he ceased laboring at the bench, and in 1829 re- 
moved to New York Cit}', where he soon found himself busily 
occupied with professional engagements. Such was his reputa- 
tion even at this early period, that he was induced by his friends 
to teach drawing to a class of pupils, and, before the end of his 
first year's residence in New York, to publish a work upon archi- 
tecture. This was almost the first American treatise on the sub- 
ject, and met the wants of the public to such an extent as to 
become ver}^ widely known and used. Encouraged by the suc- 
cess of this work, he issued in 1835 another, entitled " The 
Beauties of Architecture," containing original designs and plans 
of great taste and merit, which was somewhat enlarged and re- 
published in 1839 by Appleton & Co., and has appeared at fre- 
quent intervals since. Towards tlie close of his life, he gathered 
many of his designs and arranged a comprehensive treatise, 
known as the " Architectural Instructor," which is an illustrated 
cyclopedia of the whole subject, historically, theoretically, and 
practically considered. This was published shortly after his 
death by G. P. Putnam & Co., in a large quarto volume of 
great elegance, profusely embellished with plates. 

The structures of Mr. Lafever are scattered over the countiy, 
but chiefly in New York State, New Jersey, New England, and in 
Upper Canada. The number of private residences and public 
buildings which he erected was ver}^ large. Of nearly fort}' 
sacred edifices designed by him in his later years, the following 
in Brooklyn may be mentioned, in addition to the church and 
chapel of the Holy Trinity : The Reformed Dutch, near the City 
Hall ; the Strong Place Baptist ; the Reformed Dutch, the Uni- 
tarian, and the Baptist in Pierrepont Street ; and the Universalist 



Architectural Description of the Church, 6i 



in Monroe Place. He also designed the massive archways at 
the foot of Montague Street, the Savings Bank in Fulton Street, 
and the Packer Institute, which was his last work. 

Mr. Lafever was distinguished for his indomitable energ}^ and 
mental activit}', for great firmness of character and self-reliance, 
and for his original resources and refined taste. Besides his pro- 
fessional pursuits, he was much interested in the political and 
social questions of his day, and endeavored scrupulously to dis- 
charge all the duties of the Christian, the citizen, and the parent. 
After a lingering illness, which he bore with uncomplaining forti- 
tude and cheerful resignation, he died at Williamsburgh, on the 
twent}^-sixth of September, 1854, in his fifty-eighth year, and was 
buried in the cemetery of Cypress Hills. 



Note IV. Page 19. 
Architectural Descriptio7i of the Churchy Chapel^ and Rectory. 

This large pile of buildings stands on the most elevated por- 
tion of the Heights, about sixt}^-four feet above the level of the 
sea, and covers eight lots of ground ; the church facing on Clinton 
Street, while its south side and the fronts of the chapel and rec- 
toiy are on jSIontague Street. The material used in construction 
is red sandstone, from the neighborhood of Haverstraw on the 
Hudson. The st}'le is decorated English, with flamboyant 
tracer}^ The head builders were Mr. Thomas Stratton, mason, 
and Mr. Robert White, carpenter. 

The church has an engaged tower, nave, north and south aisles, 
chancel in the extension of the nave, and a sacrist}' on the north 
side. The tower is strongly built, with bold and massive but- 
tresses at the angles, and is divided into three stories. The first 
contains, in front, the principal doorway, and on each side a three- 
bayed window to light the porch. The jamb of the doorway is 
deeply splayed and ornamented with engaged shafts, with proper 
bases and capitals ; which latter support a richly molded arch, 
surmounted by a gabled canopy having the spandrels filled 



62 



Architectural Description of the 



with tracer}', while the coping is enriched with crockets and a 
finial at the top. This stor}^ terminates in a battlement course. 
The second stoiy has three large richl}- mullioned windows, and 
over these are three large crosses formed by openings in the 
wall, the feet of which terminate behind projecting corbels, and 
the extremities of the head and arms expand into trefoils, with a 
molding running round the border. This story is crowned by a 
bold cavetto, filled at short intervals with flowers. The third 
stoiy or belfr}--stage has on each side a three-bayed window, the 
mullions and tracery of which are of stone, the louvres being of 
blue slate. The whole is crowned with a pointed battlement, 
which terminates at each angle of the tower in an octagonal pin- 
nacle. From this rises a broach in courses, which is capped on 
the four diagonal faces of the spire by pinnacles ; and on the car- 
dinal faces are four dials, with an ogee canopy, surmounted by a 
triangular gable, terniinating in a finial. The spire, which begins 
at this point, is continued to the height of 275 feet, and is beaded 
at the angles, and pierced with three tiers of windows, with gabled 
hoods. The whole is finished with a molded terminal, support- 
ing a metal cross gilded, measuring in height 9 feet, and 6 feet 
across the arms. At the base the tower measures, including the 
buttresses, 35 feet in width, and without the buttresses 29 feet. 
The height to the cornice of the third stage is 122 feet, and to 
the top of the cross 284 feet. The tower is to be furnished with 
a chime of bells, and the broach of the spire with a clock. This 
portion of the edifice, from the belfry chamber upward, was 
designed by Mr. Patrick C. Keely, and executed by Messrs. 
Brown and Valentine, at an expenditure of $55,000. 

Beside the main entrance through the tower, there are two side 
doors, opening through small porches into the nave, and over 
these, immediately above the embattled parapet, are narrow win- 
dows, and still higher quatrefoil windows. The nave is separated 
from the aisles by heavy projecting buttresses, terminating in pin- 
nacles at a height of 96 feet. The front of each aisle contains a 
large window, which sei-ves, with another on the side, to light the 
stairway to the galleries. The main corners are flanked by but- 
tresses on the front and side. 



Church of the Holy Trinity. 



63 



The side elevation presents an aisle and clearstory of nine 
bays, with buttresses strengthening the piers opposite the interior 
columns, and crowned with ornamental pinnacles. The chancel 
end is marked by a gable on the aisle and nave, each containing 
a quatrefoil above its large window, and having more massive 
pinnacles and buttresses than the rest of the side elevation ; the 
large doorway below furnishes an entrance to the chapel, and also 
to the west end of the church, and by a staircase to the southern 
gallery. The parapet of the aisles has square, or castellated bat- 
tlements ; and of the nave, pointed and molded. The roofs are 
covered with slates. A large stone cross, richly chiselled, sur- 
mounts the chancel gable. The height to the ridge of the roof 
of the nave is 77 feet, to the top of the cornice, not including the 
parapet, 60 feet ; and to the top of the cornice of the aisles 34 
feet. The length of the church, including the tower, is 145 feet, 
with the chapel 170 feet, and with the rectory 195 feet. The 
width, with the buttresses, is 80 feet, and without them 72 feet. 
The windows of the aisles have transoms corresponding with the 
line of contact of the interior galleries ; and throughout the struc- 
ture, they are generally divided by mullions into three bays, and 
have tracery of the flamboyant character. The doors are of 
black walnut, with deeply sunk panels, highly enriched with 
moldings and carving. 

The central entrance is through a spacious porch in the lower 
story of the tower, finished with an elaborate pendant ceiling, 
and paved, as are all the porches, with light colored freestone, laid 
in small squares. In one corner is a spiral staircase of carved 
black walnut leading to the organ gallery. From the porch, 
sliding doors open into the nave, under a highly ornamented arch 
supported on jambs, enriched by engaged columns. Over this is 
the choir story of the tower, which is open, and projects some- 
what into the nave in the form of an elaborate screen adorned 
with tracery, buttresses, and pinnacles. In addition to the main 
entrance, there are smaller doors on each side communicating 
through small lobbies with the street. Beyond these in each 
corner are arranged the staircases to the galleries. Lofty piers 
support the arch which separates the organ loft from the nave. 



64 



Architectural Description of the 



The organ story is finished with a groined pendant ceiling, simi- 
lar to that of the porch below ; and contains the organ, the case 
of which is constructed of elaborately carved black walnut, with 
octagonal turrets and pinnacles, and a perforated gable adorned 
with crockets and finials, the central and side spaces being filled 
with gilt pipes. This is an instrument of great power, and 
remarkable richness of tone, and was constructed by Mr. Henrys 
Crabb, of Flatbush, L. I. The large window which terminates 
this end of the church, is filled with stained glass, representing 
the musical instruments mentioned in the Scriptures, and other 
appropriate devices. By the open character of this stage of the 
tower, greater length and effect are imparted to the nave. A 
spiral staircase to the upper portions of the tower and spire is 
carried up in the southeast corner. 

The nave is separated from the aisles by clustered columns of 
stone, with molded 'bases and capitals carved with foliage. 
These support the clearstory wall, the groined ceilings and the 
roofs. The ribs of the nave ceiling rest on foliaged corbels, and 
at their intersections are finished with hea\y bosses decorated 
with foliage, and ecclesiological emblems, such as the Lamb and 
Cross, the monogram of the Holy Name, the emblem of the 
Trinit}^, &c. The height of the vaulting is 63 feet. The windows 
of the clearstor)'- have molded jambs supported on projecting 
sills ornamented with candng. The gallery front, which is 
panelled and carved in black walnut, runs between the columns. 
The aisles are groined in a similar style to that of the nave. 
Under the windows of the aisles, the wall is wainscoted in black 
walnut richly molded and panelled. The width of the nave is 
42 feet, and of the aisles 15 feet. 

There are three alleys, the central one being six feet in width, 
paved with stone. The pews, 227 in number, of which 175 are 
on the ground floor and 52 in the galleries, are of black walnut 
and of rich design, and without doors. The chancel, wliich is 42 
feet long and 16 wide, rises three steps above the floor of the nave, 
and is separated from it by a highly ornamented black walnut 
railing. The pulpit is hexagonal, richly carved, and reached with 
movable steps from the sacrarium. The lectern, sedilia, kneel- 



Chapel a7id Rectory of the Holy Trinity, 65 

ing-desks, and large altar chairs are of elaborately carved black 
walnut, the latter being enriched with crockets, pierced tracery, 
and other ornaments. The altar, also of black walnut, is richly 
panelled and carved, and is elevated two steps above the floor of 
the chancel. The font is of Little Falls stone, after designs by 
the late Mr. Frank Wills \ the bowl is octagonal, having emblems 
in the panels on each face, with a molded shaft and base. 

Behind the altar stands a reredos, adorned with buttresses, cano- 
pied niches, and foliaged tracer}^, finished to resemble stone. 
Over this is a large stained window, representing the Ascension, 
the upper portion being appropriately filled with many symbols 
relating to our Saviour ; and in the side-walls of the chancel are 
windows with designs illustrative of the sacraments of Baptism 
and the Lord's Supper. All the windows of the church, which 
were designed and executed by Mr. William Jay Bolton, of Bolton 
Prior}^, Pelham, are historical subjects, those of the clearstory 
representing the prominent historical incidents of the Old Testa- 
ment ; those of the aisles, in the compartments above the gal- 
leries, the leading events in the life of Christ, and in those below 
His genealog)'. 

The chancel is connected by a door at the north end, with the 
vestr^^-room ; w^hich latter has another communication with the 
church under the gallery, and also with the chapel in the rear. 
All of the inner doors, like the outer, are of massive black walnut, 
with deeply sunk panels, and richly ornamented. The whole 
church is carpeted with a fabric expressly designed for the pur- 
pose, of a chaste and appropriate figure, and in other respects is 
properly and completely furnished. 

The chapel and rectory harmonize in style and general effect 
with the church. The former has a gable at the ends, that of the 
front being enriched with buttresses, pinnacles, and battlements. 
It contains one large window in the centre, and a small quatrefoil 
over it. As already mentioned, the entrance is at the side adjoin- 
ing the chmxh. The length of the chapel, including the but- 
tresses, is 84 feet, the width 25 feet, and the height of the vault- 
ing 23 feet. The walls, like those of the church, are richly wain- 
scoted in black walnut, and plastered above to represent light 
9 



66 The Opening Services at the Church 

colored stone, while the panels of the ceiling between the ribs 
are painted blue. Besides the two windows at the extremities 
of the chapel, light is admitted at short intervals through the 
roof by skylights, corresponding with which are stained glass 
windows of a quatrefoil form in the vaulting of the interior. The 
subject of the chancel window is Christ with the Doctors, and in 
the south end Christ blessing Little Children, while the windows 
in the ceiling, except the large central ones left in unstained glass, 
are filled with cherub faces, each having as its legend a title of 
Christ. The chancel-rail, lectern, communion-table, and open 
seats are of black walnut, as are also the organ-case at the right 
of the chancel, and a rich open screen at the south end, which 
incloses the Sunday-school library. 

The rectory is similar in plan to the ordinary block-house of 
two stories with a basement and attic, except that it has a wing 
of two stories, the upper of which is arranged for a library. The 
ornamented molded caps of the door and windows of the first 
story are in the form of the depressed pointed arch, while in the 
basement and second story they are square. In the centre of the 
upper story, a small bay window projects, over which rises a 
gable ; and two quatrefoil windows are arranged at the sides. 
The cornice has a pendant ornament, and five octagonal turrets 
resting on corbels. The chimney-tops are similar in form to the 
gable turrets. The interior is finished in black walnut. 

The buildings are inclosed with an iron fence, of a rich and 
appropriate design, set in a brown stone coping. 



Note V. Page 20. 

TJie Opening Services at the Church of the Holy Trinity. 

The local papers of the day give lengthy and glowing descrip- 
tions of the church and of its first service. On the evening after, 
the " Brooklyn Eagle " published an article of several columns,* 
from which the following items are extracted : — 
* Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 24, 1847. 



of the Holy Trinity, 



67 



" Our Brooklyn Trinity was opened yesterday for Divine Ser- 
vice, according to announcement. The crowd of worshipers, 
visitors, and so on, convened around the doors a long time before 
the stated period for opening them ; and, when the passage was 
ready, the pews and aisles ' slowly but surely ' filled up with peo- 
ple — most of the occupants of the former being ladies. Of 
course, the first thing was to take a look at the building ; and 
even the rigidly devout might be lenient to the undevotional feel- 
ing of curiosity exercised toward such a temple. 

" Though the church is in an unfinished condition yet, — the 
wind whistling through the boards that answer for glasses in the 
gallery windows, — its appearance impresses one with some of 
the highest effects of gracefully massive religious architecture. 
The arched and carved roof, with its rich tracery, cannot fail to 
attract every eye, and hold it for a time at least ; and the gorge- 
ous splendor, somewhat subdued, of the great window in the rear, 
— the life-like figures and the vivid colors, — although dazzling 
at first, soon fall into keeping with the harmony of the rest. Per- 
haps no better items are contained in the arrangements of this 
church than the structure of the pulpit and reading-desk, • — the 
former not attached to one of the sides, as in New York Trinity, 
but raised in its proper position toward the centre, — ascent to it 
being by a low flight of steps, sideways. The pews are built of 
black walnut, and show in keeping with the rest of the fabric. 
The red and black floor-cloths, and other furniture, all appear to 
be selected and arranged with taste. 

" After the reading of the services by an assistant,* the rector 

* The Rev. B. G. Noble, who assisted the rector for several months, was 
born in Newtown, Conn. ; graduated at Yale College in 1810, and was ad- 
mitted to Deacon's Orders in 1812, and to Priests' in 181 7. He was rector of 
Christ Church, Middletown, Conn., from i8i2to 1829, and subsequently resided 
for a short time in New Jersey ; then returned to his native State, and opened a 
school at Bridgeport, where he continued for several years. He was twice 
chosen Secretary of the Diocesan Convention, and was for a time assistant 
editor of the Churchman's Magazine. . Ill health prevented him in his latter 
years from resuming parochial duty, although it was always a pleasure for him 
to aid in the public services, whenever he was able. He died at Bridgeport 
on the sixteenth of November, 1848, in the fifty-seventh year of his age. 



68 The Opening Services at the Church 



ascended the pulpit And from the masterly phonographic re- 
port of Mr. Oliver Dyer, taken on the spot as the words fell from 
the speaker's lips, we are enabled to give what we pledge our- 
selves to be (and ask reference to any or all who heard it) a ver- 
batim transcript, full and unmutilated, of the Rev. Mr. Lewis's 
Sermon, i Timothy iv. i6 : ' Take heed unto thyself, and unto 
thy doctrine ; continue in them : for in doing this, thou shalt 
both save thyself and them that hear thee.' 

" Yesterday's developments in the way of the choir hardly 
evinced enough, probably, to judge what will be the quality of 
the music at the Holy Trinity. The choir, Capt. Olney, leader, 
appears to be not full. We must say, however, that we were 
very- pleasantly impressed with yesterday's performance ; it was 
done quietly and artistically. More practice is needed, of course ; 
also the organ, over which Mr. Rogers presides, is not finished ; 
and the voices of the singers must be pitched better to the neces- 
sities and echoes of the filled building. But there is evidently a 
talent and a clean-working power in that ' little band ' which is 
capable of pleasing the best tuned and most fastidious ear. 

" In the afternoon the crowd was less dense than in the morn- 
ing. Rev. Mr. Noble, as in the morning, read the service ; but 
his voice was quite inaudible toward the front of the house. Rev. 
Mr. Lewis's text in the afternoon was from the fourteenth verse 
of the 13 2d Psalm : ' Here will I dwell' The tenor of the dis- 
course was partly that God had signified his pleasure in having 
houses set apart for devotion to Him. To say that Mr. Lewis is 
an eloquent preacher would be an unfair application of that mis- 
used adjective. His manner and style are very plain. He has 
neither the fire of the highest order of oratory, nor the graceful 
blandness of the second order. But his words appear to come, 
and doubtless do come, from the heart. He is candid not only 
to his hearers, but with himself. We have been told that he is a 
most worthy performer of his pastoral duties among his flock." 

The following is a brief extract from an article in the " Brook- 
lyn Star":—* 

* Brooklyn Star^ April 28, 1847. 



of the Holy Trinity, 



69 



" The spacious and elegant churches lately erected bear un- 
questionable evidence of the spirit of enterprise, liberality, and 
free thought which characterize the people of Brooklyn. Amongst 
the latest of these is the great Church of the Holy Trinity. It is 
built, on the outside, of that fine red granite or sandstone which 
Nature has so kindly furnished near at hand for such purposes. 
In glancing at this church, the first impression from its front is, 
that it is more harmonious in its proportions than that of Trinity, 
New York. It stands apparently upon a wider space, and looms 
upwards to the eye with full and appropriate supports, and cer- 
tainly does not bear the narrow and stiff air of the New York 
church. All who see it must admit the truth of these remarks ; 
and our utter ignorance of either the architect or his friends, will 
acquit us of any unfriendly design in them. We merely speak of 
things as we see them. 

" The inside is beautiful, chaste, and harmonious. The high 
Gothic arches, admirably arranged, so as to lift up the mind in 
contemplation by their height, lightness, and beauty ; the stained 
or painted glass ; the dark, walnut furniture ; the admirable 
carvings ; the sombre contrasts ; all conspire to throw a rich, 
solemn, and befitting air over the church, and declare it a place 
made for the worship of the Most High God ! We can truly de- 
clare, that in no other place of worship which we have ever 
visited, have we been so sensibly impressed with the idea of 
standing before our Maker. 

' Cold is the heart that looks unmoved on Thee, 
Nor feels the impulse here to bend the knee ; 
No hght from Heaven hath reached his darkened soul ! 
But sin and vice o'er him hold full control.' 

We broke away from the spell that subdued us, and came back 
into the busy throng of life." 



70 Life of Rev. William H. Lewis, D. D. 



Note VI. Page 21. 
Sketch of the Life of the Rev. William H. Lewis, D. D. 

Born at Litchfield, Connecticut, on the twent}^-second of De- 
cember, 1803, and brought up by pious parents in a town some- 
what noted for its rehgious and educational advantages, Dr. 
Lewis early in life turned his thoughts towards the ministr}- of 
the Church. His instructors in his native place were the Rev. 
Truman Marsh and Mr. John P. Brace ; after^vards he pursued 
his studies at the Pittsfield Academy in Massachusetts, and at 
the Cheshire Academy in his own State. The latter was at that 
time called the Episcopal College of Connecticut, and was a 
large and flourishing institution, under the management of the 
Rev. Tillotson Bronson, D. D. 

At the age of twenty-one, Dr. Lewis entered the General 
Theological Seminaiy of New York, where he continued for t^vo 
years and a half. In January, 1827, he was admitted to Holy 
Orders by Bishop Brownell, in Christ Church, Hartford. On 
the third of July of the same year, he married Emeline J., 
daughter of Robert S. Bartow of New York. His first services 
in the Church were entered upon as the assistant to the Rev. 
Henry R. Judah, of Bridgeport, Connecticut. After this, for a 
short time, he became the assistant to the Rev. Gregory T. 
Bedell, D. D., at Philadelphia ; and next, having ofiiciated for a 
few months at Walden, New York, he was settled over St. Paul's 
Church, Huntington, Connecticut. He remained here, however, 
but a short time, having been called, on the fifth of Februar)-, 1829, 
through the suggestion of the Rev. James Milnor, D. D., always 
an attached and valued friend, to the rectorship of St. George's 
Church, Flushing, Long Island. From this place, in 1833, he 
removed to Marblehead, Massachusetts, and became the rector 
of St. Michael's Church. Here passed seven years of his life in 
arduous and most successful labors. His ministrations, always 
useful and acceptable wherever he had been, were eminently so 
in this parish. The congregation, which he found small and dis- 
couraged, soon became large and flourishing, and zealous in all 



Life of Rev. William H. Lewis ^ D.D. 71 



good works. While here, in 1837, he preached the Convention 
Sermon for the Eastern Diocese, as it was then called, on the 
dut}^ of " Sanctifying Ourselves for Christ's Service," — a dis- 
course of marked abilit}^, in which he shows that it is not extra- 
ordinary talents, nor vast acquirements, nor brilliant eloquence, 
but high attainments in holiness that must rank as the ver}^ first 
qualification for the Christian ministr}^, and the essential element 
of all real success. A large number of the clergy who heard it, 
among whom occur the names of John Bristed, Alexander H. Vin- 
ton, Jonathan M. Wainwright, Thomas M. Clark, John S. Stone, 
M. A. D'Wolf Howe, Thomas H. Vail, and Samuel Fuller, im- 
pressed with its " practical and impressive views of ministerial 
character," requested its publication. 

Brought somewhat more prominently before the church, Dr. 
Lewis was ere long invited to a larger sphere of usefulness, and, 
on the fifteenth of November, 1840, commenced services in Cal- 
vary Church, Brooklyn. By his faithful and efficient labors the 
church was soon filled, and in 1841 considerably enlarged and 
filled again. The success of this enterprise, and the necessity of 
greater church accommodation for the increasing population of 
the city, having induced the liberal originator of this parish to 
erect the Church of the Holy Trinity on the Heights, Dr. Lewis 
was requested to accept the rectorship. To this new edifice a 
large proportion of the congregation of Calvary Church repaired 
with him. His first discourses in the church, on the opening 
day, the twenty-fifth of April, I847, on " The Path of Pastoral 
Success," and " God's Dwelling in Earthly Temples," which were 
published at the time, touched upon the views and principles by 
which his ministry should be guided. The high ideal which he 
unfolded of the pastoral office, and the spiritual prosperity which 
he foreshadowed as the result, it is not too much to say he 
abundantly realized during the many years which he passed in 
this most laborious and responsible position. 

As a preacher. Dr. Lewis aimed always to declare the whole 
counsel of God, in a plain, forcible, and practical manner, such as 
might best reach the consciences and move the hearts of his 
hearers ; and to this especially must be attributed his usefulness 



72 Life of Rev, William H. Lewis, D, D. 

and success. For doctrinal polemics or metaphysical disquisi- 
tions he had no taste, but for Scriptural and Apostolic truth and 
order he was constantly the bold, earnest, and consistent cham- 
pion. Conservative in churchmanship, opposed to all novel or 
unauthorized changes or innovations on either hand, and adher- 
ing firmly to the distinctive doctrines and time-honored usages of 
our communion, his course gained him the confidence of most, 
and won the respect even of those who might not always entirely 
agree with him. In 1844, he received the honorary degree of 
Master of Arts from Kenyon College, and in 1847 from Middle- 
burj/ College, the degree of Doctor of Divinity. 

In the general work of the Church, in several societies and in- 
stitutions, among which may be mentioned the Church Charity 
Foundation, of which he was president for many years, and the 
General Protestant Episcopal Sunday-school Union and Church 
Book Society, he bor© an active part, and rendered very valuable 
service. Much too was accomplished by his exertions and influ- 
ence, during his residence in Brooklyn, in furthering city missions, 
and in extending and strengthening the Church at home and 
abroad. In his parish an organization was formed on the thir- 
teenth of March, 1850, and incorporated, called the Benevolent 
Association of the Church of the Holy Trinity, through the instru- 
mentality of which for several years, St. Mark's Free Church was 
built and sustained, the salary of a missionary at Shanghai provided 
for, contributions made towards establishing a church at Aurora, 
Illinois, and at other localities. From time to time Dr. Lewis 
published several works which have been well received, and have 
been repeatedly re-issued. His " Early Called," " Sermons for 
the Christian Year," " Confession of Christ," " Christian Union," 
and many occasional sermons and tracts, have had a very wide 
circulation, and have been found highly useful. 

On the twenty-sixth of Februar}^, i860, after nearly fourteen 
years of earnest and uninterrupted labor. Dr. Lewis preached 
his Farewell Discourse in the Church of the Holy Trinity, review- 
ing the trials and successes of his ministry, and presenting the 
statistics of the parish during its first rectorship. The number of 
persons who had joined the communion was 1,657, of whom 



Consecration of the Church of the Holy Trinity, 73 



1,210 were by accession from other parishes, and 447 new com- 
municants j 87 had died. Of adult baptisms there had been 144, 
and of infant 1,131, in all 1,275. The number of confirmations 
was 599, of marriages 475, and of funerals 838. The amount 
contributed for various charities was reported as $42,927.48. In 
the Sunday-school there were 44 teachers and 368 scholars. 
Soon after resigning this parish. Dr. Lewis accepted the rector- 
ship of Christ Church, Watertown, Connecticut, where he has 
since resided. 



Note VII. Page 23. 
Co7isecration of the Church of the Holy Trinity. 

Ox Tuesday morning, the twenty-third of September, 1856, a 
ver}^ large congregation gathered, to participate in the imposing 
consecration sendees. The long procession of the clergy formed 
in the Chapel, and moving round the building, were received by 
the Church-wardens and Vestr^onen at the front entrance, and 
passed up the central alley in the following order : — 

Rt. Rev. Horatio Potter, D. D., LL. D. 
Prav. Bishop of New York. 

Rt. Rev. G. W. DOANE, D. D. LL. D., Rt, Rev. H. J. Whitehouse, D. D., 

Bishop of Nexi) Jersey. Bishop of Illijiois. 

Rt. Rev. T. M. Clark, D. D., Rt. Rev. T. F. Scott, D. D., 

Bishop of Rhode Island. Bishop of Oregon. 

Rev. T. Stafford Drowne, Rev. Wm. H. Lewis, D. D,, 

Assist. Minister, Rector. 

Rev. W. Berrian, D. D., Rev. FRA^-CIS Vinton, D. D., 

Rector of Trinity, N. Y. Assist. Min. THnity, N. Y. 

Rev. B. C. Cutler, D. D., Rev. R. B. Van Kleeck, D. D., 

Rector of St. Ajin's, Brookl}!!. Rector of St. Raid's, Troy, 

and more than lOO clerg}-men, in surplices, 
Delegates to the Diocesan Convention, 
Wardens and Vestrymen of other Churches, &c. 

As the procession moved toward the chancel. Bishop Potter, and 
the Bishops and Clergy, repeated the Twenty-fourth Psalm respon- 
10 



74 



Consecration of the Church 



sively. On arriving at the altar the five bishops, and as many of 
the clergy as could be accommodated, took places within the 
rails, the others occupying seats and pews near the chancel. 

The instrument of donation and request was presented by the 
Hon. N. B. Morse, and read by the Rev. Dr. Van Kleeck. The 
Provisional Bishop proceeded with the usual form for conse- 
cration. The sentence of consecration was read by the Rev. Mr. 
Flagg, Rector of Grace Church ; after which the Rev. Dr. Can- 
field, Rector of Christ Church, commenced Morning Prayer. The 
proper psalms for the occasion (the 84th, i22d, and 133d) were 
read by the Rev. T. T. Guion of St. John's. The first lesson 
(i Kings viii. 22-63) was read by the Rev. Dr. F. Vinton, and 
the second (Heb. x. 19-26) by the Rev. Dr. Cutler of St. Ann's. 
The Rev. J. W. Diller of St. Luke's said the Nicene Creed, and 
the Rev. Dr. Berrian the Prayers. 

The Rev. Dr. Lewis then gave out the second and third verses 
of the Twenty-first Selection of Psalms ; after the singing of 
which Bishop Doane proceeded with the Ante-Communion Ser- 
vice, assisted in the Epistle by Bishop Scott, and in the Gospel 
by Bishop Whitehouse. 

The Rector then read a statement, informing the congregation 
that although a heavy debt still remained on the church, yet there 
was a reasonable certainty that the building would be secured to 
its present consecrated uses. Under the peculiar circumstances 
of the parish, the Bishop with this assurance had consented to con- 
secrate, not feeling justified in requiring that it should be abso- 
lutely free from debt. He acknowledged with gratitude the as- 
sistance which had been rendered from those outside of the con- 
gregation, from the widow's mite to the large contributions of the 
wealthy; and concluded by returning thanks to Almighty God 
that the heavy calamity which hung over the church recently had 
been averted. 

The Seventy-ninth Selection of Psalms (Old Hundred) was 
then sung, after which Bishop Clark, of Rhode Island, ascended 
the pulpit, and delivered a most excellent discourse from Ezra 
V. 15. " Let the house of God be builded in his place." 

The edifices raised for the worship of Deity are always a true 



of the Holy Trinity. 



75 



index of the culture of a nation, and consciously or unconsciously 
symbolical of the faith of the builders. The Africans' shapeless 
mound of earth, filled with uncouth images, showed their ignor- 
ance and superstition ; the gorgeous temples of the East, and 
the gloomy structures of India also revealed the intellectual prog- 
ress of these worshipers ; while the grand mosques of the Mo- 
hammedans proclaimed a higher civilization and a purer faith 
than any of the foregoing, but left unsolved the great problem of 
human existence, and told the world of no Saviour. Even the 
Christian religion exhibits its different types in its edifices. The 
Romish Church, with her flickering lights and burning incense, 
showed a mixture of Paganism and Christianity, and was symbol- 
ical of the mingled truth and falsehood which characterized her 
doctrines. So passing on to the other extreme, we find the bald 
and rigid theology of Calvin setting aside the beauty of holiness, 
as inconsistent with holiness itself. It is proper that the House 
of God should represent the best phase and the greatest wealth 
of the people. If the culture of a nation is to be expressed at 
all in architecture, if our dwelling-houses are to give evidence of 
our taste and cultivation, why not also the temples of God? 
Shall we have marble banks, and hemlock churches ? Though 
it is reasonablv said that we must have cheap churches to reach 
the hearts of the people, it is not necessary that costly churches 
should be costly to the worshipers. It is objected that the poor 
suffer hunger, and cold, and nakedness, while the wealth of the 
rich is expended on these buildings, but does not the erection of 
these edifices give employment to the poor? and are they any 
poorer because the shadow of the church spire marks the passage 
of the sun over their lowly roofs ? The soul is educated through 
other avenues besides that of hearing. It is of the highest im- 
portance that nothing mean, vulgar, or repulsive should be asso- 
ciated with the worship of God. Thence passing on to the uses 
of the building, he considered it as the house of worship and 
place of religious instruction. As to the former he highly exalted 
its superiority and dignity, and strongly described the reviving 
sense of its just claims, rejoicing at the prevalent desire for an 
appropriate ritual among many of those who have hitherto been 



76 Life of the Rev. A. N. Littlejohn, D. D, 



the bitterest enemies of a liturgy. The superstitious fear of 
superstition was at length happily on the wane. The church 
should appeal to every faculty and every sense to promote the 
worship of Jehovah. In speaking of religious instruction, he ex- 
patiated at length and ver}^ forcibly upon the whole range of a 
preacher's and a pastor's duty ; and as specially appropriate to 
the times, strongly denounced the mixing up of religion and poli- 
tics. The necessit}' of the personal application of the gospel to 
each individual, was glowingly dwelt on. In concluding, he con- 
gratulated the congregation on the services of the day ; and there 
was a peculiar beauty and gracefulness in the allusion to the former 
pastorate of the Rector, the Rev. Dr. Lewis, at Marblehead ; and 
to that faith, which, like the light-house through the storm, had 
guided him through all the difficulties of the past, and enabled 
him to bring the noble ship into a safe harbor. 

The sermon ended, the choir sang the one hundred and first 
hymn ; and Bishop Potter said the concluding prayer, and gave 
the benediction. 

The music, with the exception of the Te Deum which was 
Jackson in F, was simple in character, and was very generally 
joined in by the congregation.* After the services, the Bishops 
and Clergy were hospitably entertained at the Rectory. 



Note VIII. Page 23. 

Sketch of the Life of the Rev. A. N. Littlejohn, D. D, 

Abram N. Littlejohn was born in Montgomery County, 
New York, on the thirteenth day of December, 1824. He was 
graduated at Union College in 1845, ^^^^ admitted to the diaco- 

* At this time, and during nearly the entire period of Dr. Lewis' connec- 
tion with the church, from 1846 to i860, the choir consisted of Mr. William 
S. Rogers, organist and basso, Mrs. George E. Warner, soprano, Mrs. W. S. 
Rogers, alto, and Mr. William H. Demarest, tenor. 



Life of the Rev, A. N. Littlejohn, D. D, 77 



nate on the eighteenth of March, I848, at Auburn, by the Rt. Rev. 
William H. De Lancey, D. D., Bishop of Western New York. 

After officiating at St. Ann's Church, Amsterdam, New York, 
one year, and at St. Andrew's Church, Meriden, Connecticut, for 
a period of ten months, he entered, on the tenth of April, 1850, 
upon the rectorship of Christ Church, Springfield, Massachusetts, 
where he remained a little over a year. While connected with 
this parish, on the tenth of November, 1850, he was ordained to 
the priesthood. In July, 185 1, he succeeded the Rev. Dr. Samuel 
E. Cooke in the rectorship of St. Paul's Church, New Haven, at 
which he continued until the spring of i860, when he accepted a 
call to the Church of the Holy Trinit}-, Brooklyn, entering upon 
his duties at Easter. 

Dr. Littlejohn delivered the first of a Course of Lectures, given 
by various bishops and clerg}Tnen, on the " Evidences of Chris- 
tianit}^" in Philadelphia, in the fall and ^\dnter of 1853-54. The 
theme assigned him, and which he discussed with masterly abil- 
it}', was " The Philosophy of Religion." Tl*ese Discourses were 
subsequently published, with an Introductor}^ Essay by the late 
Rt. Rev. Alonzo Potter, D. D., LL. D., Bishop of Pennsylvania, 
and constitute a most valuable contribution to the theological 
literature of the Church. 

In 1856, the subject of our sketch received the degree of Doc- 
tor of Divinit}- from the Universit}^ of Pennsylvania. In Januar}-, 
1858, he was unanimously invited by the Board of Trustees to 
accept the presidency of Hobart College, Geneva, New York. 
During a period of ten years, he performed the duties of Lecturer 
on Pastoral Theolog}' at the Berkeley Divinity School, Middle- 
town, Connecticut. x\s a member of the Domestic Committee of 
the Board of ^Missions, he has been prominently connected with 
the missionary work of the Church in this country. He is also a 
Trustee of St. Stephen's College, and of the General Theological 
Seminary, New York \ a member of the Executive Committee of 
the Protestant Episcopal Freedman's Commission, a director of 
the Societ}- for the Increase of the Minist.r\-, and a member of the 
Executive Committee of the Sunday-school Union and Church 
Book Society. For several successive years he has been elected 



78 Life of the Rev. A, N. Littlejohn, D. D. 



to the office of President of the Homes for the Aged and Orphan 
on the Church Charit}- Foundation, Brooklyn, and to that of A^ice- 
President of the King's Count}' Convocation for Church Exten- 
sion, the Bishop of the Diocese being ex-officio President. 

For a considerable period, Dr. Littlejohn was a contributor to 
the Aviericaii Quarterly Church Review. Among the articles 
most favorably known to the public are Reviews of " Sir James 
Stephens' Lectures on the History of France," " Cousin's History 
of Modern Philosophy," " The Character and Writings of Cole- 
ridge," " The Poems of George Herbert," and " Miss Beecher's 
Bible and the People." He has also published numerous occa- 
sional discourses. 

During Dr. Littlejohn's rectorship of the Church of the Holy 
Trinit}s the growth and prosperit}' of the parish have been marked 
and uninterrupted. The parochial statistics for the past eight 
years are as follows :' adult baptisms 90, infant 410, in all 500 : 
confirmations 424, communicants added 680, present number 
580 ; marriages 242, burials 247, and the amount of contributions 
$260,000. Adding the statistics of the previous rectorship, the 
sum total of baptisms in the parish since its formation is 1,775, 
of which 234 were of adults, and 1,541 of infants; confirmations 
1,023, communicants enrolled 2,337, marriages 717, and burials 
1,085. The contributions, so far as recorded, are $302,927.48. 
The clerg}^ connected with the Church as assistant ministers dur- 
ing the first rectorship, were the Rev. T. Stafford Drowne from 
the sixteenth of November, 1848, to the seventh of May, 1858, 
the Rev. Henr}^ T. Gregoiy for a short time, followed by the Rev. 
Cornelius B. Smith, who continued to the first of February, i860. 
When Dr. Littlejohn assumed the rectorate, the Rev. N. W. Tay- 
lor Root became assistant for a few months, and was succeeded 
by the Rev. John C, Middleton fi'om the twent)^-first of October, 
i860, to Easter, 1863. On the last Sunday of the following 
October, the Rev. John H. Rogers entered upon the office, after 
whose withdrawal in 1865, temporar}^ ser^dces were rendered by 
the Rev. J. D. Philip, and by the Rev. Charles H. Van Dyne in 
1866. Early in 1867 the Rev. Benjamin B. Newton was appointed 
assistant minister. 




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